Buba Galadima leads aggrieved APC members to new faction

Some aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have pulled out of the ruling party to form a faction known as Reformed All Progressives Congress (R-APC).

Buba Galadima, a former chieftain of the ruling party, has been announced as chairman of the new group which held a meeting in Abuja on Wednesday.

Briefing reporters at the end of the meeting that lasted several hours, Galadima alleged that the APC has failed Nigerians.

He said the ruling party dashed the hope of many by running 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,” he said.

“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.”

Describing the APC as “a monumental disaster”, Galadima said 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.”

The new faction of the APC was floated less than two weeks after the ruling party held its convention in Abuja.

There were reports that aggrieved members would leave the APC during the convention but that never happened, making APC leaders to taunt their critics.

But two days ago, Kawu Baraje, leader of the nPDP bloc of the ruling party, said his group would make its position known this week.

He spoke weeks after President Muhammadu Buhari refused to meet with nPDP leaders who demanded to have a dialogue with him.

They had alleged that the ruling party sidelined them after winning the 2015 elections.

nPDP pulled out of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to team up with the APC for the last general election.

Senate President Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the house of representatives, are members of the nPDP.

The new APC faction is dominated by members of the national assembly.