According to a report by SUNDAY PUNCH, northern governors, and other senior politicians in the region, may float a new political party.
The report says the move is geared towards returning power to the region in 2015.
The option of floating a new political party is one of three available to the northern political leaders as permutations and political horse trading heighten ahead the 2015 general elections.
The newspaper quotes a source familiar with the plan as saying that the region would not allow itself to be used and dumped in the manner “Nuhu Ribadu was dumped by the Action Congress of Nigeria during the 2011 elections.”
This calculation it was learnt might not be unconnected with speculations that Ribadu, the pioneer Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the presidential candidate of the ACN in the 2011 election, was victim of a deal between his party’s power brokers and those of the Peoples Democratic Party.
The source, who pleaded anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press, said, “The reality of our current political isolation is not lost on us here in the North.
“I believe also we have learnt a thing or two from the brand of politics which led to the set up of Nuhu Ribadu by the ACN during the 2011 elections.
“If by any chance we allow that kind of thing to happen again, then we are doomed. There are three options before us and we are considering them seriously.
“One: remain in the Peoples Democratic Party where we are almost certain that President Goodluck Jonathan will impose himself on the party; for those who may have forgotten, this was done in the last Nigeria Governors’ Forum election. Don’t forget that some of the northern governors are facing expulsion threats from PDP.
“Two: join the All Progressives Congress to defeat the PDP or three: float a fresh political platform altogether. For those who think the third option is a long shot, I suggest they should think again because the Congress for Progressive Change would have been the party to beat today but for some tactical blunders.
“Politics is a game of numbers; we have the numbers as well as the political sagacity to build bridges across ethnic and religious divides, we have done it before, we can do it again.”
