Opposition senators and members of the House of Representatives threw their weight behind the party.
Edo State Governor Adams Oshimhole endorsed the party, saying its leaders must be ready to make sacrifices to ensure that it becomes formidable.
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) leader Gen. Muhammadu Buhari said the CPC would mobilise Nigerians to unseat the PDP in 2015.
CPC, along with Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) are the fulcrum of the APC.
Chairman of the ACN’s Mobilisation and Merger Committee and former Foreign Affairs Minister Chief Tom Ikimi, who announced the name of the new party on Wednesday, said the logo and other items to identify the party would be unveiled later.
The announcement came the day after 10 governors met in Lagos to announce their backing for the party.
Gen. Buhari, who spoke at the venue of Mallam Nasir el-Rufai’s book launch in Abuja, said: “To be fair to those in the committee in charge of the parties participating in the merger, we (CPC) have given them terms of reference and so we should allow them to formally report back to us, otherwise, we will be undermining the authority we have given them.
“The bottom line is that we want to mobilise Nigerians against 2015 elections to secure and manage the country.”
Senate Minority leader George Akume said the formation of APC is a culmination of widespread consultations among the progressives in the country.
He spoke on behalf of senators elected in the platform of the AC N, CPC, APGA, ANPP and the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP).
Akume added: “We support our leaders, we applaud their wisdom, patriotism and their epochal drive to stem the decline tide. We also appreciate the courage of our governors.”
House Minority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, who spoke on behalf of the opposition members said: “We members of the opposition in the House of Representatives want to make it clear that we are in support and committed to the merging of our political parties for the transformation of Nigeria.”
Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu described the merger as a stepping stone in the country’s democratic process.
“The merger is a welcome development because as we go along, we need very strong parties, disciplined ones and none that takes for granted its powers to win elections.
“Election should be for those who are prepared and for the parties to have democracy within them.
“This way you have two competitive ones rather than one dominant and the others just there,’’ he said.
Aliyu, in a statement, added that “alignments and realignments” are simple political intercourse expected in every emerging democracy”. This, he said, is “necessary for the growth and development of our democracy.”
Aliyu, who is the Chairman of the Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF), said “it would be difficult for the opposition to defeat the PDP in 2015,” “emphasising that the PDP is a national party that is rooted across the country and it would be difficult for the merger of the opposition to defeat it, even if all opposition parties were to come together.”
A former House of Representatives member, Mr Dino Melaye, said: “I believe that the merger will stand the test of time and will bring about the needed change Nigerians are asking for.
“We will not allow the merger and the new political party to be personalised. We are here to check the activity of the new party,’’ Melaye said.
ACN National Publicity Secretary Lai Mohammed said the APC was established to arrest the downward slide of insecurity so that Nigerians could have hope and revitalise the economy
“As a party, we want to reinvent Nigeria and revitalise the economy so that its shortcomings will be a thing of the past; unemployment, insecurity and lack of infrastructure,’’ he said.
Veteran unionist Chief Frank Kokori also welcomed the APC, describing it as hope for Nigerians.
Speaking to The Nation yesterday, Kokori decried a situation where the ruling party has consistently taken Nigerians for granted because of the absence of a viable platform to challenge it.
“Honestly, it gives me hope and I must say, too, that it gives Nigerians hope because there has been so much hopelessness all over the place. The reason is because there is no viable challenge from anywhere; so, they have been taking that for granted.
“But when you have a viable alternative opposition party, the party in power will sit up. We are gradually getting to the point that is similar to the days when we had the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the National Republican Convention (NRC). Politics was okay then because nobody could take anybody for granted. If you fail to deliver, there is always an alternative platform to deal with you”, Kokori said.
National Chairman of United Progressives Party ( UPP) Chief Chekwas Okorie described the coming of the new party as “ good development”. He said it had effectively made the 2015 permutations for the presidential contest clearer.
He reasoned that with the emergence of the APC, only three parties may present candidates for the 2015 presidential election.
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