Dėjà vu is the name of the political abracabra playing out in Nigeria as a substantial number of All Progressives Congress (APC) members announced the formation of the Reformed APC Wednesday in Abuja. They also pounded their party mercilessly at a press conference.
It is headed by a former loyalist of President Muhammadu Buhari, Alhaji Buba Galadima. Its spokesman is Mr. Kassim Afegbua, while members of the New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) whose leader, Kawu Baraje, was present at the press conference, collapsed into the new group.
He expressed sadness that after more than three years of governance, the APC has betrayed the hopes of Nigerians and dashed completely expectations.
“The APC has run a rudderless, inept and incompetent government that has failed to deliver good governance to the Nigerian people. It has rather imposed dictatorship, impunity, abuse of power, complete abdication of constitutional and statutory responsibilities, infidelity to the rule of law and constitutionalism.
“It has failed to ensure the security and welfare of our people and elevated nepotism to unacceptable height. The APC has failed to deliver on its key promises to the nation.
“There is no evidence of any political will to reverse the decline of our party, while leaders who have created these circumstances continue to behave as if Nigerians owe our party votes as a matter of right.”
He recalled that in the build up to the 2015 General elections, some political parties and groups came together, and formed APC.
This merger, he said, was based on the strong belief that Nigeria had come of age, but was severely underperforming and unable to meet its potentials for good governance.
He noted that the Nigerian people entrusted power to the APC based on its promises and potentials.
Galadima was unsparing to the APC: “The APC government has been a monumental disaster, even worse than the government it replaced. The political party that was a vehicle for enthroning the government was rendered powerless by manipulations and complete lack of due process in its operations.
“The last straw was the Congresses and Convention of the APC held recently. The Congresses were intensely disputed as it was conducted with impunity, total disregard for due process, disregard for the party Constitution and naked display of power and practices that have no place in a party we all worked the very hard to put in place.
“There are countless cases in courts all over the country challenging the legality of congresses and even the National Convention itself. It is very likely that the judicial decisions on these cases will result in massive chaos, confusion and uncertainties.
The fate of a party in this state with a few months to the elections is best left to the imagination, but it is not a fate we believe our millions of members should be abandoned to. There were parallel congresses in 24 States namely: Abia, Adamawa,Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Enugu, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Niger, Ondo, Oyo, Rivers, Sokoto and Zamfara.
“These congresses in Wards, Local Government Areas and States all over the federation produced different sets of delegates. We, therefore had an unfortunate situation where the party has been seriously factionalised and divided in not just 24 States but the 36 States and the FCT, Abuja.
The so-called National Convention of the APC was even worse. The National Convention of the party was ridiculed with constitutional infirmities that were so glaring and obvious that no fair-minded person can claim that a legitimate and lawful executive emerged from that process. The Chairman of the organising Committee, Jigawa State Governor, Alhaji Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, declared 18 seats unopposed and uncontested, since only one valid candidate stood at the end of the grossly manipulated nomination exercise for each of the offices. He, therefore, proceeded to declare them duly elected”.