By Toye Olori
LAGOS, Dec 29 1997 (IPS)

Leaders of four of Nigeria’s five registered political parties have been meeting to discuss plans for an alliance, following a landslide victory by the fifth group at elections to state assemblies (parliaments).

The United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) won 619 of the 838 seats at the Dec. 6 polls, leading analysts to express fears that the West African country might be headed for de facto one-party rule come Oct. 1, 1998.

Oct. 1 is the date the military has set itself for returning Nigeria to civilian rule under a transition to democracy begun in 1996.

Since the announcement of the result of the polls, which confirmed a trend observed at local government elections held earlier in the year, the other four parties have been discussing alliance plans.

The four are the National Centre Party of Nigeria (NCPN), the Democratic Party of Nigeria (DPN), the Grassroots Democratic Movement (GDM) and the Congress for National Consensus (CNC).

In a statement at the end of a recent forum in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, the NCPN urged leaders of the parties “to open a channel of communication and understanding to jointly confront the forces that are determined to derail the transition programme through turning this country into an artificial one-party state”.

So far, the four parties’ chapters in three states have agreed to present a common candidate during next year’s elections: national assembly polls are scheduled for April; elections to the post of governor of each state and presidential polls are slated for Aug. 1.

NCPN Secretary Kenny Martins said at the weekend that leaders of the four parties are expected to coordinate state and zonal discussions for effective mobilisation of the grassroots towards a nationwide accord.

“The leadership of the four political parties are meeting to see how this thing will work out,” he said. “We have in mind a kind of coalition in which, at the end of the day, the parties will have a good working relationship.”

“This alliance plan is informed by the need for the parties to checkmate the growing dominance of the UNCP,” he said, adding: “the parties in many states, including Lagos, have resolved to reach an understanding on working together during the remaining elections.

“We have spoken about the alliance. We took the decision in good faith and we believe it is for the good of democracy.”

However, the other parties have not given any indication that they are really taking the alliance idea seriously.

The NCPN has remained in the transition process even though it had charged that the Dec. 6 polls had been not been fair, a charge reiterated by Martins.

“The party rejected the declared result of that election upon the unanimity of reports from all states of the federation that there was deliberate and methodological rigging of the election by the UNCP,” he said.

The NCPN was not the only party dissatisfied with the polls. The DPN — which came in second with 204 seats — had even threatened to return its registration certificate to the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON), the federal body that organises elections in the West African nation.

But the UNCP has criticised its rivals, stressing that its victory was due to hard work and that it was not enough to turn the country into a one-party state.

Leaders of the party appeared undisturbed by the alliance talks as they continued celebrating its victory in the state- assembly election.

According to reports from various parts of the country, up to last week the heads of UNCP state chapters were still using thanksgiving services in churches and prayers in mosques to mark the party’s success.

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