Two-party system: Opposition parties reply Jonathan

Opposition political parties have accused President Goodluck Jonathan of attempting to deceive Nigerians by recommending a two-partysystem.

The Action Congress of Nigeria and the Congress for Progressive Change, who are leading partners in the newly formed All Progressive Congress, said this in Abuja on Friday.

In separate telephone interviews with Saturday PUNCH, the National Publicity Secretary of the CPC, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin and his counterpart in the ACN, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, dismissed the President’s call.

Fashakin said, “We are not asking that there should only be two parties in Nigeria. If we take what the President is saying, he is getting into an infraction.

“He is trying to impinge on the rights of Nigerians to form political parties; it is part of the fundamental human rights of anybody or any group to come together and set up political parties.

“What we are saying is that as it is with stable democracies in the world, where we have at least another dominant party within the federation – that the kind of arrangement that we had in 2011 when over 30 parties submitted themselves to the rulership of Mr. President; to use their platform is something we believe is iniquitous, unsustainable and should not be encouraged.”

Speaking in the same vein, his counterpart in the ACN, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said the President’s actions were at variance with his utterances on the issue.

He said, “We do not see in any manner how the President has encouraged the merger of our parties in the first instance.

“Secondly, the initiative of a merger is purely on opposition basis and we thank God we have gotten to the point of no return. We thank all Nigerians for their support despite all attempts to scuttle the merger.”