Former presidential adviser, Barrister Okoi Obono-Obla has advocated for the merger of the Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria Democratic Party (NNDP) to enable them to shore up a formidable base to challenge the two big political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and People Democratic Party (PDP).
But he sympathised with them, saying it appears too late for them to do that and achieve anything good in the next year’s general election.
He made the call in a statement he issued Friday in his hometown, Ugep, Cross River State.
He recalled that “It took the defunct CPC, ACN, and ANPP years of meticulous planning, financial commitments, concessions, and compromises to become a single political party.”
He noted that Labour Party and NNDP would have posed a threat to APC and PDP, but that they are nascent and struggling.
“They need to merge or align to be able to give PDP and APC a run. But the merger or coalition is too late for them because the presidential election of 2023 is looming large,” he said.
Obono-Obla advised the two parties and smaller ones to learn from the CPC and ACN experience and begin to lay the foundation for the merger to fight the 2027 presidential election.
He maintained that it is APC and PDP that have been able to forge the type of coalition of political forces across the country to win a presidential election.
He added that the reality in Nigeria today is that “there are no political parties with the strength of the PDP and APC. “