Buhari’s ‘draconian’ regime, ‘neglect of youth’ – four reasons Atiku gave for dumping APC

It is official: former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar is no longer a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Considering that there have been indications of his imminent defection from the party, the development may not come as a surprise to many.

But the Waziri Adamawa, whose history of party loyalty is punctuated with series of defection, did not leave the APC without making some grievous allegations against the ruling party.

He said APC is a wrong place to actualise “the struggle for democracy and service to my country and my people”.

We bring you some of these accusations contained in the statement Abubakar issued while announcing his resignation from the APC.

‘DRACONIAN REGIME’

Atiku recalled that he joined the APC with the belief that he had “seen the beginnings of the rebirth of the new Nigeria of our dreams” but was later proved wrong as “events of the intervening years have shown that like any other human and like many other Nigerians, I was fallible”.

According to him, “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.”

‘FAILED TO MEET EXPECTATIONS OF NIGERIANS’

The former vice-president also accused the ruling party of failing to meet the yearnings of many Nigerians.

He referred to the memo Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari in which he said the expectations of the masses that voted APC into power had been left hanging.

Aligning his voice to that of el-Rufai, Atiku said: “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’.”

A ‘DYING PARTY’

One of Atiku’s biggest worries, according to the statement he issued, is that the APC is “not carrying the young ones along”.

While accusing the party of failing and “continues to fail our people, especially our young people”, Atiku wondered how there could be “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,” he said.

FROSTY RELATIONSHIP WITH LEADERS

Another reason the former vice-president gave for his defection is the “total lack of consultations” on the side of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Still referring to el-Rufai’s letter, Atiku said: “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.”