The immediate future of Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Party is bleak, the leader of the leading opposition party in the country said on Sunday.
“We have said it before and we stand behind what we said earlier. The APC is an alliance of strange bedfellows,” said Ahmed Makarfi, the national chairman of the People’s Democratic Party.
“We don’t see it lasting as a political party.”
The APC was formed in 2013 after the then opposition parties Action Congress of Nigeria, Congress for Progressive Change, the All Nigerian People’s Party and few other smaller parties formed the so-called mega-party.
A few governors who were members of the then ruling party, the People’s Democratic Party, defected to the APC and were joined by more people from the different parties, significantly from PDP, who were displeased with the government of Goodluck Jonathan.
Muhammadu Buhari, the APC presidential candidate in the 2015 general election, riding on the wings of his promises to defeat Boko Haram insurgents ravaging Nigeria’s northeast and stamp out endemic corruption and growing disenchantment with the government of the day, was voted into power, bringing PDP’s reign from 1999 to an end.
The party is currently ruling in the majority of Nigerian states and constitutes the majority in the Nigerian Senate and the House of Representatives.
But Makarfi, who has been a member of the PDP since its formation, insisted the APC was hurriedly formed and would soon fall apart.
He said the PDP was ready to depose the APC in 2019, noting that his party had put its “teething problems” behind it. The ruling party, he said, had become unpopular with Nigerians.
“We are more than ready. If we are ready to go to polls today, we are confident that PDP will return elected,” Makarfi said.
