Nigeria’s former ruling party is in talks with other opposition groups to build a new coalition to try to prevent its main rival, the All Progressives Congress led by President Muhammadu Buhari, from winning a second term in the West African nation’s next vote in 2019.
“We’re talking to more than 16 political parties to see how we can come and work together,” Ahmed Makarfi, chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, said in an interview in the capital, Abuja, on Wednesday. “Once we come together, we should be able to take back the government.”
The PDP was in power for 16 years before losing the 2015 elections to Buhari, who campaigned on promises to fight corruption and quash the Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram. Makarfi, a former governor of the northern state of Kaduna, didn’t identify the parties involved in the talks. Nigeria has 45 political parties registered and recognized by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Buhari’s defeat of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan marked the first peaceful transfer of power in Nigeria’s history from a ruling party to the opposition. Soon after the loss, the PDP became embroiled in a leadership dispute, with Ali Modou Sheriff, a former governor of northeastern Borno state, laying claim to the chairmanship at the same time as Makarfi.
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