Some prominent members of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, have announced the emergence of a splinter group within the ruling party. The new faction is to be called the Reformed All Progressives Congress, rAPC.
The group is being led by a former ally of President Muhammadu Buhari in the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, Buba Galadima.
The press conference was attended by the leader of new Peoples Democratic Party’s bloc in the APC, Alhaji Kawu Baraje.
The announcement is however not expected to deliver the kind of effect which the nPDP announcement did four years ago because the major APC bigwigs who may be backing the faction are not ready to align with the rAPC yet.
Senate president Bukola Saraki, House Speaker Yakubu Dogara, and other remembers of the nPDP faction who have been expressing disappointment with the direction of the APC did not attend today’s press conference. In comparison, when the nPDP faction was formed four years ago, a former vice president and several serving governors immediately aligned with the faction.
Galadima described the local and state congresses as well as the national convention of the APC as undemocratic.
He said, “The nPDP, a group that has made a major contribution to the emergence of the APC administration, has made strenuous efforts to invite attention to inequities, injustice and poor management in our party without any success.
“The nPDP had shown good faith and commitment to the party, but it has been rewarded with indifference and even contempt. It is obvious that the leadership of the APC has decided to shut out members of the APC, as well as other members who have raised genuine grievances and a desire to improve the responsiveness of the APC to the desire of members for a party founded on democratic principles.
.“Under the circumstances, patriotic elements and most of the original founders of the APC have found themselves in the opposing side of this charade. Most of the delegates who bought and paid for forms for the congresses and convention and were elected as delegates have come together to take control and give legitimacy to APC to be now known as and called Reformed -APC (R-APC).”
