With an eye firmly fixed on the 2018 governorship polls in Ekiti and Osun States and 2019 general election, the movers of the proposed new mega party are already targeting at least 16 states of the federation whose governors they are confident will decamp to the new party, to bolster their chances of unseating the present APC government led by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The new opposition party is believed to have the tacit support of the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that currently controls 11 states in the country, a National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bola Ahmed Tinbubu, and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, a major chieftain of the APC.
Both APC leaders have, however, denied their involvement in the proposed party, saying they remained committed to the APC.
But is that the whole truth or a political statement?
Some of the states being considered for the taking are spread across five crucial geo-political zones of the country, with the calculation that once the new party is able to hold down these states, the others could be turned into battleground states, where it would compete for votes with the APC to shore up its chances in the 2019 elections.
The states already considered to be the strongholds of the proposed mega party are Abia, Ebonyi and Enugu in the South-east; Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Cross River and Bayelsa in the South-south; Osun, Oyo, Ekiti and Lagos in the South-west; Gombe, Taraba, Adamawa in the North East; and for now Benue State in the North-central zone.
Since the governors of the 16 states are seen to be sympathetic to the cause of the mega party, either directly or indirectly, their membership would most likely be taken for granted, while the party is saddled with the task of concentrating on areas where it is considered to be relatively weak.
According to ThisDay, the movers behind the new party are of the view that if they must make any meaningful impact in the elections in 2018 and 2019, certain states are germane to the victory.