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![TMCNet: For Mega Summit Movement, the Centre Can't Hold [analysis]](http://images.tmcnet.com/siteart/invisible.gif)
For Mega Summit Movement, the Centre Can't Hold [analysis]
Lagos, Mar 12, 2010 (Daily Independent/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --
The crisis rocking the Mega Summit Movement (MSM) has continued to manifest in different forms in the last few weeks. Apart from a consistent tendency to hold differing positions on national issues, either of the two factions of the political group has been issuing statements to disparage the other. The ambition of the group to present a formidable opposition to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) now seems hardly realisable, according to commentators.
The mainstream faction comprising some of the leaders of the organisation from the beginning, such as Olu Falae and Wale Okunniyi, two weeks ago issued a statement calling for an Interim National Government (ING) and this was promptly rejected by the radical faction which declaimed what it considered the doubtful hypocritical democratic disposition of the other. In a statement signed by Rosemary Takor, Director of Secretariat Operations; Olusegun Mayegun, Director of Planning & Strategy, and Hon. R.A Shitta-Bey, Chairman, South-West Zone (MSM), the group noted that although the MSM was deeply concerned about the leadership crisis in Nigeria, it remained faithful to the tenets of democratic rule and would do all within its capacity to ensure that Nigeria's democratic journey remained on course.
It also stressed that the ING would only serve as a recipe for deep-seated political conflicts that would conflagrate and torpedo the country completely, adding that Nigerians and the international community ought to be alerted that any call for the ING at this moment of the nation's democratic journey, irrespective of the nature and character of the composition, was totally unpatriotic, suspicious and fraught with bad omen for Nigeria and the desire for enthroning genuine democracy.
Parts of the statement read: "We wish to also place on record that this bunch of political loafers who only feign membership of the MSM are calling for ING as a smokescreen for resuscitating their selfish political ambition that has become moribund.
"Having failed in their wild goose-chase to create another political platform in the mould of the Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) under the National Democratic Movement (NDM), the call for ING appears the only option that would ensure the realisation of the unprincipled political accommodation and relevance which led them to abandoning the MSM in the first instance.
"Having failed woefully to realize their misconceived and ill-fated agenda under the NDM, it is obvious that the call for ING is the latest agenda of deceit and political gamble. We totally and unambiguously disagree with the agenda of foisting an ING on Nigerians on the pretext that the 2011 general elections would not fare any better than what was witnessed in 2007."
Okunniyi had issued a statement few days earlier notifying newspaper editors of the existence of a group it called "political hirelings" masquerading as leaders of MSM, and advised that their statements be ignored. Okunniyi claimed that "these political hirelings were separately recruited and sponsored by some notorious politicians, reputed for treacherous tendency, to undermine and discredit our great movement in order to manoeuvre political gains for themselves and the Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) which they serve as double agents."
Parts of the statement read: "Unknown to unsuspecting public, these elements have been subtly planting and sponsoring divisive stories and propaganda to blackmail the very eminent and credible leadership and positions of the MSM in the media. Two of such unauthorised stories are planted in the Punch Newspapers of Friday, March 5, 2010 and page 5 of The Nation of Saturday, March 6, 2010.
"The leadership of our movement condemns the activities of these impostors and their sponsors and therefore wishes to distance itself from any media statements not authorized by either the Steering Committee Chairman, Olu Falae (Cfr) or the Head of Secretariat, Olawale Okunniyi or signed by the Director of Publicity, Mallam Hamisu San Turaki
"All editors are hereby alerted to disregard sponsored and unauthorised stories from these hirelings and political jobbers purporting to be speaking on behalf of the National Secretariat of the Mega Summit Movement as their dubious activities are already being monitored by appropriate organ.
"For clarifications and further inquiry on the movement activities, the general public is hereby advised to contact the Chair of the Steering Committee of the Mega Summit Movement; Chief Olu Falae or the Head of Secretariat, Wale Okunniyi. Any other individual outside the above designated persons, purporting to be speaking officially for our movement, either under anonymity or openly, should henceforth be treated as an impostor."
Significantly, the radical faction, which R.A Shitta-Bey belongs, now occupies the secretariat of the movement located at the Jabita Hotel in Ikeja. This faction has accused Okunniyi, former Head of Secretariat, of anti-party activities, and insisted that enjoyed the cover of Falae and other elders in the movement who despite being privy to his misdemeanors had looked the other way. Mayegun who appeared to be the leading figure of the splinter group also accused the former leadership of procrastinating in its decision to form a party, insisting it had the hidden intention to sell out to the campaign organisations of Mohammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar which are currently attempting to midwife a party. He disclosed that the MSM with secretariat at Jabita Hotel had almost completed the process of registering a political party, with all formalities completed.
It was not certain whether Mayegun and others had drawn up a new manifesto for their about-to-be-launched party after alleging that the NDM had hijacked the original manifesto of the MSM.
Meanwhile, the Falae-led MSM met on Monday, March 8, at Lateef Jakande's residence in Lagos to consolidate what it identified as its plan to form "a broad-based mega alternative political party ideologically distinct from what the Peoples' Democratic Party currently presents to the Nigerian people."
The meeting which was the second in series of MSM leadership consultations towards the adoption of an all-inclusive common platform was attended by political leaders in the southern part of the country as the first caucus held in Abuja a week earlier had received proposals from Northern stakeholders of MSM.
It was attended by leaders like Lateef Jakande, the host and Chair of the meeting; Olu Falae, Chair of MSM Steering Committee; Prof Pat Utomi; Ayo Adebanjo; Dapo Sarumi; Supo Shonibare, and others.
It decided, among other things, "That the Leadership of MSM should formally open a pungent practical talk with Congress for Progressive Change, CPC and Good Governance Group, 3G with a view to working out an urgent practical merger or fusion caste on Labour structures.
"That MSM should terminate the process of consultations with all allies and stakeholders at a National Summit that should not exceed the month of April 2010, as the time left for the next elections, envisaged to hold in November 2010, is now limited and most stakeholders and supporters of MSM are already agitated to have the new party in good time.
"That MSM's representatives in the Steering Team of the National Democratic Movement should immediately convene the decisions of the two consultations held by the leadership of MSM to NDM leadership at the next meeting of the NDM."
With the Northern CPC and NDM still in planning stages few months to Presidential Election while the MSM is factionalised, the envisaged mega front against the PDP may become yet another deferred possibility.
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