The National Publicity Secretary of the Caretaker Committee of New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP), Ambassador Agbo Major, has said that the party has 15 presidential aspirants and several aspirants for governorship, senatorial, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly seats, ahead of the 2023 general elections.
A former Kano State Governor and Minister of Defence, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, is set to leave the PDP for the NNPP, after his Kwankwasiya Movement and The National Movement (TNM), which he recently formed as a third force, had joined the party.
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Major, who said this on Tuesday in Abuja at a media parley, also said that the party will hold its zonal congresses on 28th March while the National Convention holds on 30th March in Abuja.
He said the party has started harvesting big weight politicians and political groups like TNM, Kwankwasiyya Political Movement, Market Women Groups in Osun and Gombe states, youth groups, defectors from other political parties among others.
“As Nigerians continue to embrace NNPP, our great party has so far received 15 presidential aspirants and several aspirants for governorship, senatorial, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly seats.
“As a grassroots political party, aspirants are also enjoined to carry out issue-based campaigns and eschew politics of bitterness and brigandage that impeded the nation’s democratic development.
“The Party’s Zonal Congresses are scheduled to hold on 28th March 2022, across the Federation. The climax of this giant strides in repositioning the Party is the National Convention which will hold in Abuja on 30th March to elect substantive national officers of the Party,” Major said.
He also said that after over 22 years of constitutional rule, Nigerians desire and deserve a strong, united, prosperous and equitable democratic society.
He lamented that previous governments failed to make the Nigerian dream possible and that Nigerians are today more impoverished than they were in 1999 as the much-taunted dividends of democracy remain a mirage.
He said, “As a mass movement, a third leg in the nation’s political tripod and a leading opposition party in the country, the New Nigeria People’s Party has become the beautiful bride of Nigerian democracy.
“The ongoing alignment and realignment of political forces are eloquent testimony of the party’s determination to win future elections in the country and salvage our dear nation from the jaws of political buccaneers masquerading as democrats with the sole intention to loot our common patrimony.
“To accommodate the high influx of new members into our great party, its national leadership recently dissolved all organs and executives at all levels in accordance with the Constitution of NNPP 2018 as amended.
“The party has successfully conducted ward, local government and state congresses across the country. However, state congresses in Rivers, Imo, Plateau and FCT were suspended due to minor disagreements.”
He, however, urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to be neutral as the electoral umpire and conduct free, fair, credible, transparent, generally acceptable, inclusive and peaceful elections.
He noted that the Electoral Act 2022 which provides for a Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and electronic transmission of results has renewed Nigerians’ confidence in the electoral process.
“The upcoming governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun States provide another opportunity to perfect the use of BVAS and electronic transmission of results that will ensure a hitch-free general election in 2023.
“Since Independence in 1960, Nigerians have never had it so bad despite trillions of naira borrowed from foreign countries to improve the well-being of the people. The situation is equivalent to pouring water in a bottomless pit.
“Sadly, the nation gropes in the dark of power outage, perennial fuel scarcity, elongated insecurity, hunger, economic recession, political upheavals, confusion and uncertainty as if there is no government in place,” Major said.
