By Nuel Suji – After weeks of unsuccessful attempt to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari for dialogue, aggrieved leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Wednesday pulled out of the ruling party to form a faction known as Reformed All Progressives Congress (rAPC).
The factional APC members cited “dictatorship, impunity, abuse of power, complete abdication of constitutional and statutory responsibilities, infidelity to the rule of law and constitutionalism as reasons why it could no longer remain in the fold of the ruling party”
While briefing journalists at the end of its meeting in Abuja, former APC chieftain, Buba Galadima, who emerged as chairman of the new group, described the Buhari-led APC government as “monumental disaster” worse than the government it took over from.
The rAPC said the APC failed to deliver on its key promises to Nigerians but instead ran a “rudderless, inept and incompetent government”.
“You will recall that in the buildup to the 2015 general election, some political parties and groups came together, and formed a brand new political party, the All Progressives Congress, APC,” Mr. Galadima said.
According to him, “This merger was based on the strong belief that Nigeria had come of age, but was severely underperforming and unable to meet its potentials for good governance. The Nigerian people entrusted power to the APC based on its promises and potentials.
“We are sad to report that 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. It has rather imposed dictatorship, impunity, abuse of power, complete abdication of constitutional and statutory responsibilities, infidelity to the rule of law and constitutionalism.
“It has failed to ensure the security and welfare of our people and elevated nepotism to unacceptable height. The APC has failed to deliver on its key promises to the nation. 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.”
Mr. Galadima also criticized the recent party congresses of APC saying, the convention and congresses of the party exposed the rots in the APC.
“The APC government, has been a monumental disaster, even worse than the government it replaced. 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,” he said.
“The last straw, was the congresses and convention of the APC 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 the very hard to put in place.”
Only recently, the Baraje Kawu led nPDP, one of the political bloc that left the PDP prior to the 2015 general election to form the APC announced its plan to leave the ruling party if its grievances were not addressed.
The group which has in its fold the President of the Senate Bukola Saraki, Sokoto state governor, Aminu Tambuwal and Speaker of House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara among others failed to secure the attention of President Buhari who it considered was in a better position to address its grievances.
