Defection To APC: PDP Has Lost Direction – Atiku

A former Vice-President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, says his defection to the All Progressives Party, APC, was motivated by the loss of direction in the People’s Democratic Party, PDP.

Abubakar said that the PDP was no more the same party that he co-founded, as it had lost direction and all its true meaning. He regretted that all efforts to put the party back on track had proved abortive.

Speaking to Channels Television during the News At 10, he accused the party’s leadership of consistently ignoring reports submitted by different committees towards the repositioning of the party.

He said that the PDP had lost its independence to the government, noting that it used to be in a position to question government and governors. Mr Abubakar said that the situation had degenerated, with the party failing to leave up to its expectations.

The former vice-president once left the PDP in 2006 to run for president as the Action Congress’s candidate, but later returned to the PDP in 2009, and there are questions about the possibility of Nigerians taking him serious this time.

“My defection was a normal process because our democracy is an evolving democratic process and it is normal to move from party to party until the whole system is well developed,” he said, countering notions that he was inconsistent.

He was also asked to share his plans for the APC, if things did not go according to his plans, but the former presidential candidate said, assuredly, “this will not happen”. He noted that the APC was another good experiment like the PDP had been in the beginning.

“The large merger of parties that made up the APC has never been seen before in the country and that makes it a viable party as the Nigerian political system is coming into a 2 party system,” he said.

Mr Abubakar also said that his defection was not about contesting for the Presidency. Holding on to an earlier comment that he was passionate about Nigeria, he said: “It is not about the issue of contesting for positions”.

He assured Nigerians that the APC was different from the PDP and that they should “wait and see what the APC offers”. He referred to the PDP as an establishment that did not want change, while the APC is seeking change.

“Nigeria needs a leader who is committed to the philosophy and ideology of the party and who is acceptable by all ethnic and religious classes. We need people who can unite the country and move it forward”, the former PDP member said.

He also took time to speak about the issues of corruption surrounding him in relation to bribery allegations by American Congressman, William Jefferson.

“Jefferson never gave any money to me and I was never convicted in that report.

“Even the jury in America convicted Mr Jefferson on all counts, except the count about the bribery of foreign nationals. I cannot stop him from dropping names,” Abubakar explained.