Former CPC chairmen float new movement ahead of 2023

Former state chairmen of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), one of the legacy parties that came together to form the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), have formed a new political association, New Nigeria Movement.

The former CPC state chairmen hinged their decision on the ruling party’s deviation from its foundational plans.

The CPC, along with the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in 2009, and factions of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had joined forces with others to form APC to wrestle power from the PDP in 2015.

Some PDP governors, led by Mr. Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, formed the New PDP that joined the APC.

However, the ACN and the CPC, on whose platform President Muhammadu Buhari ran and lost in 2011 after he pulled out of the ANPP where he had vied for the presidency twice in 2003 and 2007, were the major partners in the coalition of political parties that formed the ruling party.

Following a meeting in Abuja on Thursday, the CPC members said they have floated the NNM ahead of the 2023 election season during which Buhari would’ve fully served its two terms, and ineligible to run again.

A communiqué issued to journalists after its inaugural meeting named a former Kano State chairman of the defunct CPC, Alhaji Ahmed Zogo, as its national chairman.

The group promised to give a new direction to Nigeria.

The communiqué read: “The inaugural meeting of the New Nigeria Movement (NNM), a socio-political group comprising patriotic and credible Nigerians who are determined to give a new direction held in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, on the 19th of January, 2021.

“The pioneer members are drawn from the thirty-six states of the federation and united by a burning desire to give Nigeria a new political direction that will guarantee peace, true unity, equity and mutual trust.”

The communiqué stated that the group empathized with Buhari on his efforts at salvaging Nigeria from the age-long decay and also commended him for reminding the APC national caretaker committee on the need to keep the commitment to all members of the merger – CPC, ACN, and ANPP.

“The New Nigeria Movement (NNM), therefore, resolved to team up with patriotic Nigerians and the president to move the country forward.

“Our movement is in total support of the clarion call by Nigerians for power shift to the South and generational power shift,” it added.