Ex-Speaker, Na’Abba regrets joining APC, says President running one-man show

Na’Abba, who joined the APC in 2015, also said that President Buhari is running a one-man show.

No Unity

The former Speaker also revealed that there is no unity of purpose in the ruling party.

Na’Abba said that he has been sidelined because he said that he will not support Buhari’s re-election agenda.

According to him, the APC is a party where dissenting views are not accepted.

He said “My experience in the APC is such that I only have regrets to tell because I found a party that is divided and there is no unity of purpose.

“It is a party that produced the president but the president does not work with the party. In fact the president does not work with anybody. He works only with himself.

“That is one of the problems that he has. A lot of the people that worked with him for twelve years have left him because he does not even seem to know what is happening to him.

“My experience in the APC is that in the last three years, there were only four or five caucus meetings. The time lag between the first one in February 2016 and the second one in October/ November 2017 was sixteen months.

“I was not invited to the fourth and fifth meetings because in an interview with a Network I indicated my intention not to support Buhari’s re-election in 2019.

“A situation where dissent is not tolerated in a democratic arrangement portends danger to our democracy. Therefore, the party and Buhari have become one and the same thing.”

APC in disarray

Na’Abba, citing the reports of parallel congresses and executives during the APC state conventions is an offshoot of Buhari’s decision to work alone.

He said that the other parties that came together to form APC are feeling marginalised, adding that the nPDP members are planning to leave the party.

The former Speaker, who said that there is no connection between the President and the party, added that he cannot say that he is better off in the APC.

“APC is an amalgam of interests that came together to do away with the PDP which by the grace of God they succeeded.

“The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in now from the party. But instead of the president to coalesce the disparate tendencies within the party, so that it becomes cohesive, he decided to operate a one man show, working neither with the party nor the National Assembly.

“The result is what we are seeing today in the congresses of the party across the country. Today the new PDP faction in the APC is saying it wants to opt out of the party. You can see very little of the former ANPP in the government.

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“The only visible tendencies in the government are a little of the ACN and the CPC and even the CPC, majority of members still feel marginalized.

“The party is not being operated like a party because there is no connect between the president and the party. In almost all the states, it is the same thing going on between the governors and party members.

“The party becomes active only when the president or the governors need to use it. So honestly there is almost no reason for me to claim that I am better off in the APC than in the PDP,” he added.

Meanwhile, there are reports that members of the New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) have been meeting to discuss their continued stay in the APC ahead of 2019.