By Nigerians Abroad news wire

An MOU document obtained by Nigerians Abroad Live could help give a better insights into why two of Nigeria’s strongest opposition parties - Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) failed in their bid to unite and unseat the ruling party, whose candidate, Goodluck Jonathan, won the country’s April 16 presidential poll.

In the period leading to Nigeria’s general elections, party leaders from both the ACN and the CPC makes several attempts to form an alliance and present a joint presidential candidate against the powerful ruling party, but failed to reach a compromise.

The latest attempt just after Nigeria’s parliamentary elections also fell through with an allegation that the CPC - describe as the junior in the alliance - was unwilling to give away the vice-president slot to the ACN.

“We regret to announce that such talks have not led to any such alliance,… “In the overall interest of the parties involved, our democracy as well as our country, it is better for each of the parties to go into the presidential election on its own platform,” said Bisi Akande, chairman of the ACN, at a press conference after the failed merger talk.

CPC Agreement with Pastor Bakare’s led ICRD
The new document shows that prior to ACN merger talk with CPC, the latter had enter into an agreement with Pastor Tunde Bakare’s led organization, International Centre for Reconstruction Development (ICRD), believed to be a sister organization of Save Nigeria Group (SNG).

It was through the CPC-ICRD partnership that Bakare became Muhammadu Buhari running mate. Such complication therefore makes it impossible for the CPC  to oblige to ACN request for the vice-president slot [see document below].

In the mean time, political pundits have continued to question the root cause of presidential election apathy and the consequent ruling party major victory in the south-west zone, a strong hold of the opposition, ACN.