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CUPP ALLIANCE: Nothing is cast in stone yet —KOWA Party

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CUPP ALLIANCE: Nothing is cast in stone yet —KOWA Party

KOWA Party has said that it is still exploring other alliance options with other political parties.

The party explained, that it joined the alliance of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Reformed All Progressives Congress (R-APC) and other political parties in order to play a leading role in salvaging the country.

The party is one of the 39 political parties, which recently in alliance, formed Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) in a bid to ensure President Muhammadu Buhari is not re-elected in 2019.

According to national secretary of the party, Comrade Mark Adebayo, “KOWA is open to other coalition efforts and is already planning to drive its own coalition initiative. Nothing is cast in stone yet”.

KOWA said it will be part of the drivers of the alliance, and is hopeful that young generation parties will be at the driving seat of the grand alliance.

The party stated this in a statement by its national secretary, Comrade Mark Adebayo, made available to Ripples Nigeria.

“After the news broke last week that KOWA Party was one of the political parties in a coalition to oust the incumbent administration of the failed All Progressives Congress and following the media reports of the nature of the coalition and its objectives, it has become imperative that we address the press, our supporters, and the entire people of Nigeria of our position in the coalition due, principally, to the huge public interests generated by KOWA’s involvement in a coalition with parties perceived as essentially ‘tainted’ by past misrule and ‘corrupt’ elements.”

The party which said that it has been under tremendous pressures from members and well-wishers to explain the rationale behind the action, insisted that Buhari’s government has failed the country on “security and anti-corruption and all governance indices in an unprecedented manner and leading the country in a rapid regression into total anarchy if not state failure.”

It argued that it was based on this it “joined the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) to oust an irresponsible government” from power through a consensus presidential candidate rather than dividing the opposition vote.

“First and foremeost, the Party wishes to unequivocally state that in no way is it deviating from its founding ideology to serve the people with credible, responsible, and effective leadership. It is totally committed to the realization of this goal. However, due to the current political climate in the country and in order to actualize this objective, plus certain internal Party dynamics, joining the coalition appearsto be the best possible alternative at the moment.

“Aside from certain fundamental internal dynamics that informed the decision to be part of it, KOWA joined the coalition on an exploratory basis and at the moment still reviewing the terms of engagement and membership. It is a developing process.

“KOWA as a party will not lose its identity in any sense. KOWA is still fielding its candidates for the governorship, national assemblies, state assemblies, local governments and wards.

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“KOWA Party will still do its presidential primary and produce a presidential candidate who will face an All-Party Screening Panel to be set up by the coalition comprising of equal numbers of representatives from all member-parties following which the best candidtate will emerge as the flag bearer of the coalition through a mutually agreed democratic process.

“For now, our main objective is to work within the coalition to convince the ‘bigger’ parties to support one of the new generation parties, among which is KOWA, to produce the presidential candidate while they support the candidate that eventually emerges with their well-established structures and humongous party machinery accross the country”, the party said.

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