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”.
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.
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