“On the 19th of December, 2013, I received members of the All
Progressives Congress at my house in Abuja. They had come to appeal to
me to join their party after my party, the Peoples Democratic Party, had
become factionalized as a result of the special convention of August
31, 2013.
“The fractionalization of the Peoples Democratic Party on August
31, 2013 had left me in a situation where I was, with several other
loyal party members, in limbo, not knowing which of the parallel
executives of the party was the legitimate leadership.
“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 other founding fathers and I had for the PDP could be actualized
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 fractionalization
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.
“Like you, I said that because I believed that we had finally seen
the beginnings of the rebirth of the new Nigeria of our dreams which
would work for all of us, old and young.
“However, events of the intervening years have shown that like any other human and like many other Nigerians, I was fallible.
“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.
“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’.
“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.
“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?
“Be that as it may be, 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.
“May God bless you and may God bless Nigeria”.
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