APC Loses Atiku as Ben Bruce fears Former VP’s Businesses will Suffer
Nigeria’s former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, on Friday formally announced his resignation as member of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, describing same as a dying party.
Newswire Law & Events Magazine recalls that Atiku had in September accused the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government of sidelining him after helping it to power.
Speaking with the Hausa Service of the Voice of America, VOA, he had said, “honestly speaking, I’m still a member of the APC; I was part of all the processes, including campaigns until success was achieved.
“But sadly, soon after the formation of government; I was side-lined, I have no any relationship with the government, I’ve not been contacted even once to comment on anything and in turn, I maintained my distance. They used our money and influence to get to where they are but three years down the lane, this is where we are.”
His statement has since been generating controversies, with many speculating his next line of action, especially as his body language betrays interest in contesting the 2019 presidential election.
In a statement personally signed by him, the ex-VP announced that he is no longer a member of the APC, citing the failure of the ruling party to address the various challenges facing the country.
The statement however left many in the dark as he did not state where he would subsequently pitch his tent, even though many suppose that to be the PDP.
The statement reads: “On the 19th of December, 2013, I received members of the All Progressives Congress at my house in Abuja. They had come to appeal to me to join their party after my party, the Peoples Democratic Party, had become factionalized as a result of the special convention of August 31, 2013.
“The fractionalization of the Peoples Democratic Party 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 All Progressives Congress.
“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 All Progressives Congress.
“On that day, I said “it is the struggle for democracy and constitutionalism and service to my country and my people that are driving my choice and my decision” to accept the invitation to join the All Progressives Congress.
“Like you, I said that because I believed that we had finally seen the beginnings of the rebirth of the new Nigeria of our dreams which would work for all of us, old and young.
“However, events of the intervening years have shown that like any other human and like many other Nigerians, I was fallible.
“While other parties have purged themselves of the arbitrariness and unconstitutionality that led to fractionalization, the All Progressives Congress 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 All Progressives Congress had “not only failed to manage expectations of a populace that expected overnight ‘change’ but has failed to deliver even mundane matters of governance”.
He continued: “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.”
“Since that memorandum was written up until today, nothing has been done to reverse the treatment meted out to those of us invited to join the All Progressives Congress on the strength of a promise that has proven to be false. If anything, those behaviours have actually worsened.
“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.
“A party that does not take the youth into account is a dying party. The future belongs to young people.
“I admit that I and others who accepted the invitation to join the APC were eager to make positive changes for our country that we fell for a mirage. Can you blame us for wanting to put a speedy end to the sufferings of the masses of our people?
“Be that as it may be, after due consultation with my God, my family, my supporters and the Nigerian people whom I meet in all walks of life, I, Atiku Abubakar, Waziri Adamawa, hereby tender my resignation from the All Progressives Congress while I take time to ponder my future.
“May God bless you and may God bless Nigeria.”
Hours after this statement was issued, Sen. Ben Murray-Bruce (PDP Bayelsa East) stated that the resignation of Atiku from the ruling APC will make the Federal Government paralyse the business interests of the former Vice President through witch-hunt.
In a message on Twitter, he lauded the former presidential aspirant for his courage and encouraged him to return to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, where he is a founding father.
Bruce’s post reads, “I congratulate Atiku for leaving the APC. It took courage especially as he has wide business investments that are already targets and could be further targeted. I, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, now appeal to Waziri Adamawa, to return to the house he helped build, the PDP”.
Ben Murray Bruce is a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
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