Nigerian News Beat

Former vice-president of Nigeria Atiku Abubakar has decamped the ruling party PDP for APC.  Abubakar said that the PDP was no more the same party that he co-founded, as it has lost direction and all its true  meaning. He regretted that all efforts to put the party back on track failed.

He said the party leadership consistently ignored reports submitted by different committees towards repositioning 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 but the situation had degenerated, as he sees the party as having now failed by leaving its people and Nigerians in general.

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.

Abubakar said that his defection was a normal process because “ours is an evolving democratic process” and it was normal to move from party to party until the whole system is well developed. He enthused that there was nothing to suggest that he was inconsistent.

When asked to share his plans for the APC, if things did not go according to his plans, but the former presidential candidate said assuredly that this would not happen. He noted that the APC is another good experiment like the PDP was in the beginning.

Mr Abubakar also said that his defection was not about contesting for the Presidency. He said: “It is not about the issue of contesting for positions” he says it comes from the passion he has for Nigeria.