Political Tsunami To Hit APC Following Atiku’s Departure

The All Progressives Congress [APC] will, if not carefully averted, witness a political tsunami following the departure of former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Elombah.com has gathered.

According to our source, the tsunami will affect 13 APC Senators, 33 APC members of House of Representatives, 2 serving Ministers, as well as 5 APC Governors.

Their destination? Peoples Democratic Party [PDP]!

Alhaji Abubakar laid to rest all speculations as to which party he is set to join with the launching of his campaign paraphernalia, including vehicles, with PDP logo. [See photos]

According to our source, fears are rife that the fate of PDP in 2014 will befall APC before the 2019 general elections.

Saturday PUNCH reported that some APC Chieftains said that “although the ruling party had been waiting for Atiku’s defection, it was uncomfortable with the fact that there were many aggrieved members who would soon dump the party in power”.

Recall that in 2014, PDP was deflated following the exit of some governors and lawmakers, including former Rivers State Governor,  Rotimi Amaechi, former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Senator Bukola Saraki, and later, the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal.

According to PUNCH, one of the party leaders cited APC national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Kwankwaso as two of those who were not happy with the way the party was being run.

He said more than two years after coming to power, President Muhammadu Buhari had not made appointments that would bring into government those who worked for his election.

The report said further that associates of the President including the Chief of Staff, Mr. Abba Kyari and Buhari’s nephew, Mamman Daura, “have constituted themselves into a powerful cabal. 

“They take key decisions in this government. Those who ensured Buhari’s election have been sidelined. 

“If the APC and the Presidency dismiss Atiku’s defection, they are not realistic. There are fears that the party may crumble. 

“Apart from the Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan, there are other appointees of this government that are supporters of Atiku.”

In a statement on Friday morning, Atiku had cited arbitrariness and unconstitutionality, which the party has adopted, as reasons behind his departure.

He stated that APC had instituted “a regime of a draconian clampdown on all forms of democracy within the party and the government it produced.”

He went down memory lane to recall that on December 19, 2013, he hosted members of the APC in his house in Abuja.

He said the party members were there to appeal to him to join the APC after he left the PDP because of the crisis emanating from the special convention of the former ruling party on August 31, 2013.

He recalled that he and several of his loyalists were left in limbo at the time the APC came calling.

Atiku said, “It was under this cloud that members of the APC made the appeal to me to join their party, with the promise that the injustices and failure to abide by its own constitution which had dogged the then PDP, would not be replicated in the APC and with the assurance that the vision of the founding fathers, which I had for the PDP, could be actualised through the All Progressives Congress.

“It was on the basis of this invitation and the assurances made to me that I, being party-less at that time, due to the fractionalisation of my party, accepted on February 2, 2014, the hand of fellowship given to me by the All Progressives Congress.

“On that day, I said ‘it is the struggle for democracy and constitutionalism and service to my country and my people that are driving my choice and my decision” to accept the invitation to join the All Progressives Congress.”

To buttress his point, Atiku cited the El-Rufai versus Buhari love letter as evidence of his allegations against a party he worked so hard to bring to power.

He 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.”

El-Rufai further 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 the total absence of consultations with them on your part and those you have assigned such duties.”

He expressed disappointment that since the memorandum was written, nothing had been done to address the issues raised in it till this day.

Atiku accused the party of making false promises especially to those who were invited to join and reasoned that the time to quit is now!

It remains to be seen how many more aggrieved members will tow the line of the former Vice President and issue APC with a divorce paper ahead of 2019 general election.

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