National Chairman of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) has said he walked out of the meeting of Coalition for United Political Parties (CUPP) when he realised the gathering wasn’t what tne country needed to move forward.
He, however assured that his party (ANN) will not go into any alliance with either the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) non main opposition People Democratic Party (PDP) in the coming 2019 general elections.
Speaking at a crucial meeting with some of the Presidential aspirants seeking the party’s ticket to contest in 2019, ANN National Chairman, Jay Samuel, assured that his party will provide a level playing field for all the contenders.
Some of the presidential aspirants at the meeting include; Fela Durotoye, Dr. Thomas-Wilson Ikubese and Eyitayo Musa among others.
According to him, the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding between some political parties is an answer to prayer for the ANN.
“I was invited for a meeting which I wasn’t properly briefed about the agenda of the meeting, and when I got to the meeting and I saw the attendance and what was being discussed, I wasn’t comfortable because what was being discussed did not represent what Alliance for New Nigeria as a party believes in. So, I decided to take my leave. I didn’t even have any idea of what they were there for but I knew I was informed but when I got there, I was sweating and I finally too the decision of not participating in the meeting.
“Alliance for New Nigeria is clearly focussing on what we believe in and why we came up as a party. From the very beginning, we were coming to wrestle with any of the current major political parties whether it is APC or PDP. We wanted to create our plans.
“Our agenda is to create a new voting bloc not the currently existing crop of leaders and do away with current leaders. What I saw in that room was, the same people that were committed to retiring, we have our hash tag, we have been running almost to a year now to replace, so, I wasn’t comfortable coming to a room where I saw all the grandfathers and the grand patron of all and everything that has been wrong with Nigeria politically in a room.”
While assuring the presidential aspurants in attendance, Samuel said: “We are coming to disrupt the space and we are not going to do it the way of the old. In our party there is no consensus, the platform if open to all. We would provide a level playing field for everybody.
“We need to show Nigerians we are doing something differently and whoever gets our party ticket would be the person Nigerians want to vote for. There is no consensus we are not going to tell anybody to step down for anybody.”
On the issue of herdsmen and farmers crisis, the National Chairman said the issue should be tackled tthough the provisions of the law.
