Nigeria’s former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, in a piece of recent information has dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress for the Peoples Democratic Party ahead of the forthcoming 2023 general election.
This comes barely 48 hours after Dogara and some aggrieved northern APC leaders declared support for the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar.
According to the information, 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.
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.
The former speaker, 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.
In 2020, Dogara dumped the PDP to join the APC.
The development back then was announced to State House correspondents by the chairman of the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Committee, Mai Mala Buni, who said the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), was happy seeing Dogara return to the party.
Dogara, alongside former President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, and some governors had left the APC for the PDP ahead of the 2019 general election.
Fast forward to 2022, Dogara not only declared support for Atiku but has defected to the opposition party, after the Dogara-led Northern Elders Consultative Forum, claimed the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC was a minus to the ruling party.
The group had said the leaders took consideration of the existing structure of the PDP, capacity of the candidates, evidence of national penetration, religious and ethnic balance, among others to arrive at the decision.
It was observed that the APC and PDP are almost at par in terms of political structure, but the compounding albatross on the neck of APC is the “unfortunate self-inflicted divisive same-faith-ticket which cannot guarantee the desired peace, unity and cohesion in Nigeria, a decision that has been kicked against by a huge population of Nigerians.”
Dogara was appointed as a member of the PDP Campaign Council on Sunday.
In a statement on Sunday, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, who also doubles as the Director-General of the PDP PCO, said the appointment was with immediate effect.
Part of the statement read, “The leadership of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council wishes to formally announce that Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has been appointed as a member of the Presidential Campaign Council with immediate effect.
“This is part of our continuous effect in joining hands with our presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to recover our great country, Nigeria.”
Punch
