The National Chairman of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Prof Rufai Alkali, has revealed why the alliance talks between his party’s presidential candidate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, Peter Obi, collapsed.
Alkali said the alliance talk collapsed because the LP camp insisted the NNPP concede the presidency to them, adding that they were not given an option during the negotiations.
He stated this while speaking with journalists at the party’s secretariat yesterday in Abuja.
He said the party realised that Nigeria needed a new deal, having experienced unprecedented insecurity, and
He explained that NNPP was desirous of keeping in contact with any party that shared the same values with it for alliance and was optimistic when the LP option came up but discovered that LP came to the table with only one demand.
“A technical committee was set up to work out the alliance, but for the eight hours that they met, the LP camp said just one thing; that Kwankwaso should concede the presidency to Obi, that it was the time of the South East to become the president,” Alkali said.
According to Alkali, the LP camp agreed that Kwankwaso was a good candidate but said it was the turn of the South East to produce Nigeria’s next President.
The NNPP Chairman alleged that the Obi camp leaked the deliberations on social media while the alliance negotiations were ongoing, which led to the collapse of the alliance talks.
He further stated that when there was a stalemate during the negotiation, the LP camp announced to the media that there was a breakdown in the talks.
