45 parties adopt Atiku as presidential candidate

The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), comprising the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and 45 other parties, has formally adopted the PDP presidential aspirant, Atiku Abubakar, as its presidential candidate in the 2019 elections.

The Chairman of CUPP and former Governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, said this yesterday in Abuja at the opening of a meeting of the national chairmen of the parties involved.

Prince Oyinlola recalled that CUPP, at the inauguration of its steering committee, was saddled with the responsibility of selecting a joint presidential candidate for the coalition.

Oyinlola said, “In furtherance of this objective, therefore, the steering committee invited all political parties in the coalition to forward to us memoranda detailing their suggested ideas on how the candidate of the coalition should emerge and the criteria to use.

“The response was very impressive and rich. The steering committee, which as you all know, has every coalition party represented in it, distilled the suggestions, the aggregate of which was used to arrive at the result, he said.

He listed the criteria used in the selection process as national acceptability of candidate and party, strength of the structure of candidate and party across the country, competitiveness of the candidate’s party as against the APC candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, and financial strengths of candidate and party.

He also listed access to financial resources, capacity and readiness to prosecute the election across the about 120,000 polling units in the country, competence, capability and credibility of the candidate, acceptability of the candidate locally and internationally and the candidate’s experience in administration, management of economy and politics.

“We must prove to them that we are the masters in this enterprise and tell them that the Nigerian people would not follow them (APC) to the ‘The Next Evil’ scheme they have designed for our country. Millions of our suffering compatriots are looking up to us for deliverance, and we must not disappoint them,” Oyinlola said.

Members of CUPP include Democratic People’s Congress (DPC), Action Alliance (AA), Mass Action Joint Alliance (MAJA), Peoples Alliance for National Development and Liberty (PANDEL), Labour Party (LP), Mega Party of Nigeria (MPN), Peoples Progressive Party (PPP), African Democratic Congress (ADC), All Grand Alliance Party (AGAP), among others.