Endorsements: Babachir Lawal and Dogara are not sincere, says NNPP

The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) says Babachir Lawal, a former secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), and Yakubu Dogara, a former speaker of the house of representatives, are “not sincere” people.

On December 2, Dogara and the Northern Leaders Consultative Forum (NLCF) endorsed Atiku Abubakar, standard bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for the presidency.

The group said although NNPP and Labour Party (LP) are inclusive parties, they had not unveiled their plans to citizens to interrogate.

On his part, Lawal has since endorsed Peter Obi of the LP.

Lawal and Dogara — both members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) — have been protesting the party’s Muslim-Muslim ticket.

Speaking on Monday at a media briefing in Abuja, Rufa’i Alkali, NNPP national chairman, said Dogara and Lawal had approached his party, but it appeared that they were “window shopping” at the time.

“As a matter of fact, some politicians led by former speaker, Yakubu Dogara, and former SGF, Babaachir Lawal came to us some time ago under a Christian religion banner, claiming marginalisation by their party,” he said.

“At the time, nobody ever mentioned any group called Northern Leaders Consultative Forum to us.

“With the benefit of hindsight, we noticed some elements of insincerity in their activities. It appears they came to NNPP on a window shopping, desperately searching for a refuge.

“For Yakubu Dogara and his co-travellers to turn round and accuse our party and our presidential candidate, his excellency, senator Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, of not laying before Nigerians their action plan 90 days to elections, clearly showed that the group was working to predetermined answer.

“You are all living witnesses when the whole world watched it live the day senator Dr. Rabiu, on November 13, 2022 unveiled his blueprint, the RMK 2023 blueprint, appropriately captioned ‘My Pledges To You’.

Alkali, however, expressed optimism that the NNPP would win the presidential election.

“There is no doubt about the fact that Nigerians are tired of excuses and the culture of blame games, which is the pastime of the APC government in Nigeria,” he added.