Former vice president Atiku Abubakar, has resigned his membership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying the ruling party has “draconian clampdown on all forms of democracy within the party and the government it produced.”
Blueprint has however, learnt that the former vice president may register as a member of the main opposition People Democratic Party (PDP) today in his ward in Adamawa state.
In a statement signed by his Media Adviser Mazi Paul Ibe, Friday in Abuja, Atiku said “after due consultation with my God, my family, my supporters and the Nigerian people whom I meet in all walks of life, I, Atiku Abubakar, Waziri Adamawa, hereby tender my resignation from the All Progressives Congress while I take time to ponder my future.”
But reacting to the development, the ruling party wished the former vice president well in his future endeavour.
When contacted on phone for reaction, National Publicity Secretary of APC, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said “Politics is about interest, we have not seen any formal notification to that effect but based on what we have seen in the social media we can say all together is surprising but for us politics is all about interest.
“So, if the former Vice President feels that his interest is better served elsewhere, we can always wish him good luck. For us, the task of building a political party is not a day’s job; its marathon and it takes many years and we will continue to improve on our system until we are ale to get the kin of party that we want to really, really build.
“It takes many years to build a strong political party. In a new party, you find some people are happy, some people are not so happy and everybody would have to take their decisions at some point. So, we don’t have anything to say rather than to wish the former Vice President good luck.”
When asked whether Atiku’s defection will affect the fortune of APC, Abdullahi said “if we are able to see the number of people that followed the Vice President to his new party that is when we will begin to worry but we have not seen. So, when we see we will know whether we need to worry or not. It is about number.”
In the resignation statement, Atiku also attributed his resignation to failure of APC at the center, wondering how can a federal executive council be formed without a single youth among them.
“But more importantly, the party we put in place has failed and continues to fail our people, especially our young people. How can we have 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.
“I admit that I and others who accepted the invitation to join the APC were eager to make positive changes for our country that we fell for a mirage. Can you blame us for wanting to put a speedy end to the sufferings of the masses of our people?”
