A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress for the Peoples Democratic Party.
This comes barely 48 hours after Dogara and some aggrieved northern APC leaders declared support for the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar.
This followed several months of political permutations as the Northern Elders Consultative Forum, including the Christian leaders in the All Progressives Congress in the North on Friday formally adopted Atiku.
According to them, Atiku was adopted following the resolve of the Northern Christian leaders to work with their Muslim counterparts to adopt one of the presidential candidates in a bid to defeat the same-faith presidential ticket of the APC.
Dogara was received into the party during the presidential campaign by the party’s presidential candidate and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar in the nation’s commercial capital, Lagos State.
While declaring support for Atiku on Friday last week, the northern Christian group had said that the PDP ‘”is nationalistic in spread even though not free from internal crisis like each of the other political parties.”
The group, led by Dogara, under the aegis of Northern Leaders Consultative Forum (NLCF), threw its weight behind Atiku Abubakar’s presidential ambition.
Atiku, who is the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as his deputy presidential candidate.
But the All Progressives Congress (APC) has Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shetima, both Muslims, on its presidential ticket, triggering protests from some APC leaders of the Christian faith in the North.
The protest of the Northern Christian group was spearheaded by Dogara and a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, who declared his support for the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
Lawal on 24 November endorsed the candidacy of Obi, prompting Dogara’s disapproval.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Lawal based his support for Obi on the grounds that “the Obi/Datti will give us breath of fresh air and the greatest opportunity to redeem our country from the quagmire into which we have been plunged by a recurring group of self-centred reactionaries.”
On Friday, the NLCF chaired by Dogara adopted Abubakar at a meeting in Abuja after it considered and adopted recommendations contained in a report of the Northern Leaders Technical Criteria Committee (NLTCC) chaired by Kumalia Mohammed, with Mela Nunge as Secretary.
Presenting the report to the meeting, a former deputy governor of Kogi State, Simon Achuba, said the NLTCC was set up to analyse the chances of the four leading political parties and recommend which to be supported.
Achuba said the four political parties – APC, PDP, the Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), were considered based on their ability to forge national cohesion.
The report, while recommending the choice of the PDP, said from all indications, the PDP “seems to be above board in every criterion as postulated.”
“It is nationalistic in spread even though not free from internal crisis like each of the other political parties.
“If the momentum is aggressively sustained, it will be the party to reckon with.
“From the above evaluation and analysis, it is evident that the APC is heading for implosion and extinction; hence it cannot be the party for now and in the future because of its rejection to embrace inclusiveness in a diverse country like Nigeria.
“After the 2023 elections, APC may be dead and buried as a political party.
“While the duo of NNPP and LP may emerge as strong contenders in the political arena in the future, from all indications, PDP appears to be the best option to adopt and support.
“All it takes is to sustain and tackle some of the problems and challenges this country is facing.
“Certainly, with proper consultations and inclusive appointments, which is mindful of the Federal Character principles with sincere consideration of diverse issues such as religious affiliation, geographical location and ethnic identity, which many believe will enhance justice, fairness and equity.
“After a careful evaluation of all the issues highlighted above, we hereby recommend for the adoption of the PDP, to all lovers of democracy in Nigeria, for the 2023 presidential election.
“However, this should be subject to getting the necessary assurance from the party to run an all-inclusive government, details of which shall be discussed with the leadership of the party in the nearest future.”
After listening to contributions from some members of the group, including former Deputy Governor of Sokoto State, Muktar Shagari, the meeting adopted Atiku.
Dogara said his group’s support for Atiku “is to ensure equity and promote peaceful coexistence in the country.”
Before then, Dogara had maintained that the adoption Muslim-Muslim ticket by the All Progressives Congress for the 2023 presential election is a fruitless political effort that has been doomed to end in spectacular failure.
He had also taken to cleaners the insistence by the presidential candidate of APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on presenting Muslim-Muslim presidential candidates, despite a national outcry.
Dogara had expressed his views in Abuja while delivering his keynote address at a summit tagged, ‘Meet The Church,’ organised by the Nigeria National Christian Coalition with the theme: ‘The role of the church in nation-building’.
He said, “In their convoluted posturing, they have placed state-building ahead of nation-building; a task never before achieved in history and we need no seer to tell us that such endeavor is guaranteed to end in spectacular failure. No divided people have ever built any civilization
“I am so elated that today’s church in Nigeria has shaken off the beast of the complacency of the past into fire by speaking up and resisting measures adopted by some political platforms that will hamper nation building.
“In a manner that negated the fundamentals of nation building, such as shared identity, values and visions, the APC adopted a same faith ticket in a country that has never attained nationhood.”
According to him, long before the adoption of the same faith ticket, the church had warned against it through the Christian Association of Nigeria, Catholic Secretariat, ECWA and so many other Christian organisations.
Dogara said, “These warnings were not only ignored but dismissed in one fell swoop by the APC presidential candidate who strangely believes that he can build a strong, secure and viable nation-state without first forging a shared identity, vision and values for our people thereby enabling us transit from citizens of a country into a nation of people with strong shared identity and values.
“To demonstrate that the church is right, it is not alone in condemning the same faith ticket. Other prominent Islamic clerics and Muslim leaders have also spoken in the same light.
“It is a good omen that both Christian and Muslim elites are not complacent over this matter. To this end, it will be easy to generate the needed elite consensus that is key to nation-building. All nations are built by elite consensus while all countries that failed in nation-building were destroyed by elite complacency.”
The former Speaker also called on Christians to resist the temptation to waste their votes in the 2023 general elections.
“Every Christian knows that our God does not tolerate waste. It is unchristian for the church to waste anything given to us from above as we own nothing except what is given to us from above.
“I have gone to great lengths to demonstrate that the church must not waste its votes or sow same on unproductive grounds.
“Every Christian must see his vote as talents given to him by God to trade with and as seeds that must not be wasted.
“The only way we can build a nation out of Nigeria is by doing the right things. A united, inclusive, peaceful and prosperous Nigeria is possible if we go to work. We can start building that Nigeria of our dreams if we don’t waste our votes in the next election circle”, he said.
At the event, the convener of NNCC, Apostle Titilope Oluwadare, regretted that the church at present is playing a mere reactionary part in Nigeria’s political process.
She said that in every great nation the main stakeholders engage and negotiate power, positions and policies.
Oluwadare said it was time for Christians to understand that until the church engages and brings forth her interests and drives them into ideas and fashions out political strategies, the system will not be sanitised.
“Therefore, we may continue in the circle retrogression in the nation and the situation continues to deteriorate even further,” she said.
The Vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party and Governor of Delta State, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, represented by Senator Uche Ekwunife, told religious organisations and groups to show interest in engaging not just a political class, but the three arms of government as major stakeholders in Nigeria projects, especially on sensitive national issues.
He explained that by doing so, a lot more would be achieved in nation-building.
Okowa said although it might seem long overdue, Christians should navigate their way into the process of leadership in Nigeria.
He explained that Nigerians were tired of politicians who chant the problems bedeviling the nation but lack concrete solutions to the challenges.
“We know the challenges. We don’t want people to come and tell us our challenges. We want people to tell us the solutions to our problems because our problems and tomorrow’s anybody engaging your political platform”, he said.
The Punch/ Premium Times
