Some aggrieved members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), have branched off to form the Reformed – All Progressives Party (R- APC).
The group, led by a foundation member of APC, Alhaji Buba Galadima and chairman of the new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP), Alhaji Kawu Baraje, addressed a press conference at the Sheraton Hotels and Towers, declaring that the ruling party has dashed the hopes of Nigerians.
However, APC national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has sued for calm, urging party faithful to be patient as he settles down to try to address the many challenges confronting the party, even as he pledged to run an all inclusive party.
It was so much like a rehash of similar mass desertion that weakened the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), one year to the 2015 general election. Galadimma, who read from a prepared text, recalled how in the build up to the 2015 General elections, some political parties and groups came together and formed a brand new political party, the All Progressives Congress.
He noted, “Sadly, after more than three years of governance, our hopes have been betrayed, our expectations completely dashed. The APC has run a rudderless, inept and incompetent government that has failed to deliver good governance to the Nigerian people.”
Galadima, who is an erstwhile staunch ally of President Muhammadu Buhari, said APC has “rather imposed dictatorship, impunity, abuse of power, complete abdication of constitutional and statutory responsibilities, infidelity to the rule of law and constitutionalism and failed to ensure the security and welfare of our people and elevated nepotism to unacceptable height.”
Announcing his leadership of R-APC, he observed that the APC has failed to deliver on its key promises to the nation, adding, “There is no evidence of any political will to reverse the decline of our party, while leaders who have created these circumstances continue to behave as if Nigerians owe our party votes as a matter of right.”
While noting that the APC government “has been a monumental disaster, even worse than the government it replaced,” Galadima regretted that the political party that was a vehicle for enthroning the government “was rendered powerless by manipulations and complete lack of due process in its operations.”
Further, he said: “The last straw was the congresses and convention the party held recently. The Congresses were intensely disputed as it was conducted with impunity, total disregard for due process, disregard for the party constitution and naked display of power and practices that have no place in a party we all worked very hard to put in place.
“There are countless cases in courts all over the country, challenging the legality of congresses and even the national convention itself. It is very likely that the judicial decisions on these cases will result in massive chaos, confusion and uncertainties. The fate of a party in this state with a few months to the elections is best left to the imagination, but it is not a fate we believe our millions of members should be abandoned to.”
Reeling out evidence of the impending confusion, Galadima said there were parallel congresses in 24 States namely: Abia, Adamawa, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Enugu, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Niger, Ondo, Oyo, Rivers, Sokoto and Zamfara.
He disclosed that these “congresses in wards, local government councils and states all over the federation produced different sets of delegates. We therefore had an unfortunate situation, where the party has been seriously factionalised and divided in not just 24 states, but the 36 states and Abuja FCT.”
