We are prepared for Obasanjo’s group –ADC
• PDP, best option for coalition
Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) yesterday said it is prepared and ready to receive members of the Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM), being promoted by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The group had on Thursday declared that it has adopted the ADC as its platform for electioneering purpose and therefore cease to be a movement. ADC National Chairman, Chief Ralph Nwosu who spoke with Saturday Telegraph on phone yesterday said the decision was a worthy cause. “We are very, very prepared. We have received a small group before, now we have a major group; we are prepared to lead everybody to the villa,” he said.
But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in a swift reaction said the fears being expressed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo about his former party had been extensively addressed, noting that it remains the best option for a coalition force that could dislodge the All Progressives Congress (APC) from power in 2019.
When Saturday Telegraph visited the ADC headquarters in Abuja, activities were yet to pick up at the party’s national secretariat, which is located along Nyanya-Jikwoyi Road, a suburb of Abuja, 24 hours after the declaration. ADC occupies an apartment on the third floor of Capital Plaza, which houses other business centres.
Mrs. Rifkatu Dauda, who was the only person available when Saturday Telegraph visited the secretariat, said the party previously occupied two apartments but reduced it to one to reduce cost. She disclosed that party officials visit the secretariat only once in year for a meeting. The secretariat looks decrepit and unkempt even as electricity supply to the apartment had been cut off.
The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement, said the party had now been refocused and repositioned to return to power next year. He said: “Already, our reforms and rebranding efforts, particularly, the full entrenchment of internal democracy, all-inclusiveness and re-engineered mechanisms for good governance, have returned the party to the much desired political platform that represents the wishes and aspirations of Nigerians ahead of the 2019 general election.”
The PDP noted that since the new National Working Committee (NWC) came on board last December, the party had undergone extensive re-engineering in direct responses to suggestions, criticisms and wide-range of constructive counsels from Nigerians across board.
