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Nigeria’s main presidential candidates met on Saturday night at a hotel in Lagos to discuss their plans for the coming political season.
Also present at the event were members of the national political parties, members of the opposition and even some members of Nigeria’s president, Goodluck Jonathan, who is seeking a fourth term.
The meeting of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was preceded by a meeting between the presidential candidates, all with a combined total of 1.4 million votes according to official results, and followed by a news conference.
“I think that this is an important meeting because we have been trying to get the presidential candidate together,” said Abayomi Olayiwola, who presented the agenda for the meeting of the NDA before the event started.
Although the meeting was not a debate session, both the NDA’s main opposition group — the All Progressives Congress, APC and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP — and the ruling party’s candidate — Alliance for the Progress of Nigeria, APN — were ready to engage with each other.
“People have been waiting for an opportunity to meet and discuss with each other and to interact face to face,” said APC Secretary-General, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, adding he had travelled to the US to convince his party members to come and discuss with him.
However, Mohammed said the meeting had not been called to discuss the formation of a coalition but for the purpose of building consensus for the formation of the NDA by the presidential aspirants.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed is no stranger to political engagement. He was a leader of the opposition in his native Niger Delta before he was elected as one of the vice chairman of the Constituent Assembly and held other positions within that body. He returned to politics only in 2011 after the birth of his son, when he was elected as the Secretary-General of the All Progressives Congress.
The three main parties at the meeting were aware of the importance of being
