Dogara appointed PDP campaign council member — days after endorsing Atiku

Yakubu Dogara, former speaker of the house of representatives, has been appointed a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential campaign council (PCC).

Aminu Tambuwal, director general of the PDP PCC and governor of Sokoto, announced Dogara’s appointment in a statement on Sunday.

Dogara’s appointment comes two days after he declared support for Atiku Abubakar, PDP’s standard bearer.

The Northern Leaders Consultative Forum, which Dogara is a part of, had endorsed Atiku and termed him “the best.” 

It is not clear if the former speaker has renounced his membership of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

As a member of the APC, the former speaker of the house of representatives, who is one of the party’s leaders of the Christian faith, kicked against the Muslim-Muslim ticket adopted by the party.

Bola Tinubu, APC presidential candidate and Kashim Shettima, his running mate are both Muslims.

Members of a group of northern Christians in the APC had also expressed reservations over the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC, and said it would adopt a consensus candidate.

Babachir Lawal, former secretary to the government of the federation (SGF) and leader of the group, had said Obi would be the group’s choice.

Dogara, however, alongside other members of the group, distanced themselves from Lawal’s endorsement.

In 2018, the former speaker of the house of representatives, had defected from the PDP to the APC because of “failure of governance” in Bauchi, where he hails from.

While Dogara has not made an official statement on his new appointment as at the time of this report, his new role is reportedly to start immediately.