Atiku said more needs to be done to send Buhari packing despite 40 parties signing anti-APC MoU

FORMER vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has said that more work still needs to be done to unseat President Muhammadu Buhari at next year's presidential elections despite the 40 political parties signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work together.

Yesterday, Nigeria's main opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a faction of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and 38 other political parties all signed the MoU to field a joint candidate against President Buhari. Known as the Reformed APC (R-APC), the breakaway faction of the ruling party decided to break with President Buhari because they felt they were being marginalised by the government.

According to Alhaji Atiku, the main objective of the agreement is to defeat President Buhari in February 2019 when elections hold. He commended the Prince Uche Secondus-led national working committee of the PDP for having the foresight to bring together Nigeria’s opposition parties under one big umbrella.

Alhaji Atiku said: “I wholeheartedly endorse this exercise and look forward to a spirit of collaboration among ourselves as we continue the campaign for the deliverance of Nigeria from the forces of retrogression, recession, division and blame games. It might be a cliche but it still remains true that unity is strength and that only team work can make the dream work.

"I refer to the dream of our founding fathers for an indivisible united country that is progressive and founded on unity and faith. Much work needs to be done as sadly, in the last three years, Nigeria has become the world headquarters of extreme poverty, so we must thus rub our heads and minds together to ensure that by 2019, extreme poverty is on its way to becoming history even as we usher in extreme peace, progress and prosperity in its place."

Senator Shehu Sani, representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, has blamed the emergence of the R-APC on the failures of President Buhari and state governors. He added that it was in response to the poor governance and lack of focus of Buhari’s government.

Berating President Buhari’s style of leadership and the APC’s inability to address the numerous challenges of the nation, Senator Sani, noted that R-APC was on a mission to salvage the nation from those who wanted to ensure that the challenges facing the country and its people were unresolved. He added that the APC has plunged Nigeria into a crisis that has defied solutions due to the inability of President Buhari to check the excesses of those in the command structure of the party and led it astray over the past three years.

Senator Sani added: “The reformed APC is a product of the crisis within the APC in the last three years. The reformed APC became a convergence of people that are aggrieved in the party, the legislators that have been marginalised and most importantly, for the shoddy, mischievous and destructive congresses that was held under Chief John Oyegun’s chairmanship of the party.”

Chief Olu Falae, a former presidential candidate, finance minister and secretary to the federal government has also commended the signing of the MoU. He lamented the gross incompetence of the APC-led government, advised all parties to the alliance to support not only a sole presidential candidate but sole governorship, senatorial as well as House of Representatives candidates across all states of the federation.

“All our votes must go to the presidential candidate and to the governorship, senatorial and House of Representatives’ candidates in every state of the federation. It is not sufficient to produce the president alone because if we have a president who does not have majority of seats in parliament, there will be a challenge as to what the president would be able to do,” Chief Falae added.

Ekiti State governor Ayo Fayose, said he was happy that the process that would send President Buhari away has commenced. He added that the federal government was using security agencies to intimidate members of his party and supporters ahead of Saturday's governorship election in the state.