Atiku: Why I dumped APC as he rejoins PDP at his Jada Ward, Adamawa today

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Friday disclosed that lack of internal democracy, political witch hunt and marginalisation of youths informed his decision to dump the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Atiku, who has been crying of marginalisation and being sidelined by the party, said that he was lured into believing that the APC was determined to abide by democratic processes.

He added that he regretted that the party had not only thrown to the wind all democratic tools but also “instituted a regime of a draconian clampdown on all forms of democracy within the party and the government it produced”.

In a statement made available on Friday by the Atiku Media Organisation, the former APC chieftain said that all humans at times make wrong decisions lured by unfounded rhetorics but added that he has no option than to dissociate himself from a party full of falsehood and deception.

Narrating how he began the romance which has gone sour with the APC, Atiku said,

“On the 19th of December, 2013, I received members of the APC at my house in Abuja. They had come to appeal to me to join their party after my party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had become factionalized as a result of the special convention of August 31, 2013.

“The fractionalization of the PDP on August 31, 2013 had left me in a situation where I was, with several other loyal party members, in limbo, not knowing which of the parallel executives of the party was the legitimate leadership.
“It was under this cloud that members of the APC made the appeal to me to join their party, with the promise that the injustices and failure to abide by its own constitution which had dogged the then PDP, would not be replicated in the APC and with the assurance that the vision other founding fathers and I had for the PDP could be actualized through the APC.
“It was on the basis of this invitation and the assurances made to me that I, being party-less at that time, due to the fractionalization of my party, accepted on February 2, 2014, the hand of fellowship given to me by the APC”
Throwing more light on those factors that led to his decision to dump the political marriage, Atiku said, ‘While other parties have purged themselves of the arbitrariness and unconstitutionality that led to fractionalization, the APC has adopted those same practices and even gone beyond them to institute a regime of a draconian clampdown on all forms of democracy within the party and the government it produced.

“Only last year, a governor produced by the party wrote a secret memorandum to the president which ended up being leaked. In that memo, he admitted that the APC had “not only failed to manage expectations of a populace that expected overnight ‘change’ but has failed to deliver even mundane matters of governance.

“Of the party itself, that same governor said “Mr. President, Sir Your relationship with the national leadership of the party, both the formal (NWC) and informal (Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso), and former Governors of ANPP, PDP (that joined us) and ACN, is perceived by most observers to be at best frosty. Many of them are aggrieved due to what they consider total absence of consultations with them on your part and those you have assigned such duties.”

Atiku maintained that the redirection from the governor could not lead the party to change its mode of operation rather things got worst.

He said, “But more importantly, the party we put in place has failed and continues to fail our people, especially our young people. How can we have a federal cabinet without even one single youth”.

He also accused the party of paying no attention to the youth, saying that, “A party that does not take the youth into account is a dying party. The future belongs to young people”.

On the strength of these weight allegations he concluded, “I, Atiku Abubakar, Waziri Adamawa, hereby tender my resignation from the APC while I take time to ponder my future.”

But Atiku’s main grouse with the party may be connected with the allegations that the APC not only sidelined him but equally made redundant all members of its National Working Committee loyal to him as well as the recent attempt by the Buhari government to frustrate and revoke all contracts handled by any business entity associated with him.

Worthy of mention is Timi Frank, the former Deputy National Publicity Secretary who was frustrated from replacing Lai Mohammed when he was appointed the Minister of Information. Frank was also expelled from the party when he moved for the removal of the party’s national chairman, John Odigie-Oyegu.

The ruling APC-led federal government recently revoked the boats pilotage monitoring and supervision agreement that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) signed with Intels Nigeria Limited, a leading integrated logistics and facilities services provider in the maritime and oil and gas logistics sectors of the country with links to Atiku.

Just as the company was strategizing to recover from this huge setback, the federal government announced the revocation of the residence permits of the expatriate staff in Intels and five other Nigerian companies.

The Comptroller General of Immigration Service, Muhammad Babandede, in a statement, said that the action was sequel to the withdrawal of the operational licenses of the affected companies by the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority. It gave the affected officials November 30 deadline to leave the country or be classified as illegal immigrants.

The affected companies are: Intels Nig. Ltd., Prodeco International Ltd, West Africa Machinery Services Ltd., Net Global System International Ltd., MGM Logistics Solutions Ltd., Oriean Investment Ltd.

However, the Media Aide to Atiku, Paul Ibe in a telephone interview, said that the former Vice President is yet to make up his mind on his next political move. He said that his visit to Adamawa State on Friday was for a function at the American University of Nigeria but did not rule out the possibility of Atiku visiting the PDP ward secretariat to pick his membership form.

Meanwhile, The Daily Times has gathered that Atiku will today rejoin the PDP as he is expected to register at his Jada Ward, Adamawa State, where he will pick his PDP registration card.

In a related development, the leadership of the PDP on Friday beckoned on Atiku to return to the PDP unconditionally where he belongs. The party however stated that there will be no automatic ticket over his ambition.

This was made known by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Prince Dayo Adeyeye during a press conference at the party’s national headquarters in Abuja

Adeyeye also informed journalists that Atiku was a founding member of the party where he became a governor-elect and eventually a Vice President but was deceived into the APC.

The party’s spokesman said that the party is throwing its doors open for the return of Atiku and any other member who defected from the party but stressed that the PDP is a democratic party as Atiku must adhere to all democratic processes. He said that Atiku saw the truth and level of deceit in the APC which led to his exit, adding that with his exit, he is now a free person.

He also claimed that the birth of APC was a disaster for Nigeria, saying that the APC is the worst platform in the history of political party in Nigeria.

According to him, the doors of PDP are wide open for Atiku to come back without any preconditions.
He commended Atiku for being courageous enough to dump the party, but reminded him that PDP is a democratic party.
He said, “The former Vice President, Atiku who was one of the founding fathers, contested and won elections as governor of Adamawa State on the platform of the PDP.

“However and unfortunately in 2013, they were deceived into believing that there was a platform that would correct all the ills in the PDP and that it could create an Eldorado in Nigeria.

“I believe they were deceived, people like Atiku because we had challenges in our party at that point in time, they went and join the new party called the APC which we have all now seen; every Nigerian has seen, it is a fallacy.

“The day APC was born marked a tragedy for Nigeria. It has been a monumental disaster for Nigeria. There is nothing progressive in them . Everything about them is unprogressive. Everything about them is complete disaster.

“It is humans to make mistakes because we are not infallible. We have no knowledge of what will happen in the future. Human beings can always be deceived. But in John 8: 32, the Bible says ‘And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.’

“I believe Atiku Abubakar has come to know the truth like he said in the statement that he has now known the truth, that the APC is not what they call themselves, is not a better platform. That platform is the worst platform in the history of politics in Nigeria.

“I believe that Atiku has seen the truth and the truth has now set him free and we thank God for that. Therefore, being a founding father and because we have an umbrella that is big enough to accommodate everybody, PDP is a democratic party. PDP is a free party and was conceived for all Nigerians and is free from all religious, ethnicity and geographical divisions.

“It has capacity to accommodate everybody. Our doors are open for him to come back to his home without any precondition. He is free to come back like every other Nigerian and we want to appeal to those who have not seen the truth and we are praying that they will soon see the truth , so that the truth will set them free. And as soon as they are free, let them come back.”

He however, stressed that all aspirants must subject themselves to all democratic process.
Meanwhile, the APC has said that Atiku has the right of choice to belong to any political association of his choice.

Speaking to The Daily Times in office at the party secretariat in Abuja on Friday, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr Bolaji Abdullahi said; “Politics is about interest, we have not seen any formal notification to that effect but based on what we have seen in the social media we can say all together is surprising; but for us, politics is all about interest. So, if the former Vice President feels that his interest is better served elsewhere, we can always wish him good luck.

“For us, the task of building a political party is not a day’s job; its marathon and it takes many years and we will continue to improve on our system until we are able to get the kind of party that we want to really build. It takes many years to build a strong political party. In a new party, you find some people are happy, some people are not so happy and everybody would have to take their decisions at some point. So, we don’t have anything to say rather than to wish the former Vice President good luck.

“A loss of fortune is in numbers. So, if we are able to see the number of people that followed him to his new party, that is when we will begin to worry, but from what we have seen, when we see, we will know whether we need o worry or not; it is about number”.

Also speaking on the matter, Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje said that Atiku was in PDP and other party before coming to the APC.

According to Governor Ganduje, If Atiku feels dissatisfied with the APC, he has the choice to join any other party.

Myke Uzendu and Tom Okpe, Abuja