11th July, 2018
The Action Democratic Party (ADP) has disassociated itself from the recently formed Coalition of United Political Party (CUPP), led by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), saying it is an old wine in a new bottle.
National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Sani Yabagi made the party’s position known at a news conference on Wednesday in Abuja.
“You will recall that on July 9, the PDP, in conjunction with about 34 other political parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to field a common presidential candidate for the 2019 general elections, after forming the CUPP.
“The parties are also to collaborate in several other areas to ensure that the All Progressives Congress (APC) -led Federal Government is defeated in the coming elections.
“Let me say here for the avoidance of doubt that we are not part of the coalition,”he said.
Yabagi added that his party however believed that the time had come for a generational shift in leadership, but not by putting old wine in new bottles.
This, according to the ADP national chairman, is what the PDP- led coalition represented.
He recalled that similar coalition was formed in 2015, noting that it is time for Nigerians to wake up and resist another deceit by desperate and corrupt politicians ahead of 2019 general elections.
He stressed that ADP was committed to building a new Nigeria that offers hope to all, and ensure transformation in health, education, infrastructure, security, and employment, among others.
According to Yabagi, what Nigerians need at the moment, is a new direction, championed by true patriots, a process he said his party was determined to drive.
“We shall be calling on like-minded patriotic, God fearing and credible Nigerians, to join the ADP-led coalition to rebuild Nigeria and make our nation the pride of Africa,”he said.
He said that ADP was a child of necessity that would deepen democracy and good governance to establish the credible political platform that would rescue the country.
He stressed that the party was not prepared to jettison its values and Constitutional provisions such as the use of direct primaries as against the often used corrupt delegate system by the other parties in the CUPP.
“The ADP is also not in a hurry to hobnob with those who mismanaged Nigeria for sixteen years, and now re-grouping in an un-strategic haste to resume unprecedented loot of the nation’s treasury.
“It is important to know that those who pushed Nigeria to the precipice are the drivers of the coalition and have nothing new to offer.
“To collaborate with them is to sleep with strange bedfellows,”the ADP national chairman said.
He maintained that the ADP was however, not averse to any political coalition that could bring a positive overhaul of the Nigerian system, but stressed that such coalition must be done with true patriots.
He added that such patriots must not be seen to be a part of the Nigerian problem.
Yabagi added that in the desire to acquire power, the ADP would not compromise its basic principles and ideology.