By Olugbenga Salami
All Progressives Congress, APC national chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, on Wednesday, led some members of the National Working Committee, NWC of the party to the Senate wing of the National Assembly to stop the gale of defections by his members to the opposition parties.
The gale of defections have depleted the numbers of APC senators to 62 from 71 at the start of the 9th Senate while there’s indication that more are on their way to the opposition parties.
The defectors, in their letters of resignation and jumping ship, alleged injustices by their state governors and lack of internal democracy as reasons for their actions.
In the recent weeks, particularly after the primary elections of the party at the state level, some aggrieved APC lawmakers have resigned their membership of the ruling party and joined the opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP; New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP and the Labour Party, LP.
This week alone, Senators Ahmad Babba-Kaita (Katsina North), Lawal Yahaya Gumau (Bauchi South), Francis Alimikhena (Edo North), and Dauda Jika (Bauchi Central), have resigned their membership of the party.
While Babba-Kaita and Alimikhena defected to the PDP, Gumau and Jika on the other hand, defected to the NNPP.
The notice of their resignation and defection was contained in three separate letters read during plenary by the Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
Earlier, the Senate Leader, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi (Kebbi North) and Senator Adamu Aliero (Kebbi Central), had left the ruling party for the PDP.
Sources at the meeting of the APC national chairman and the senators confirmed that the parley was “about the increasing rate of defections by our colleagues to other parties and how to put a stop to the ugly trend before it’s too late.”
But speaking with journalists after the meeting, Adamu described the parley as “most fruitful”.
On the gale of defections, he said: “It is an unfortunate development when it happens, but this is a season for all manners of behaviour in the political space in the country and Nigeria is not an exception.
“In every election year, this kind of subs step gives cause for people, stakeholders to sneeze. Nigeria is not an exception and the APC is not an exception, so I don’t give a damn about what is happening in other parties, I care about what is happening in our party.
“You and I know that it is not just APC that this thing is happening. But because we are the ruling party, yes our problems are more prominent in the public glare.”
Asked whether he’s worried about people abandoning the party, the chairman said:
“No responsible leader would not worry about losing one member not to talk of two, three. At the moment, we are faced with the stack reality of their problems, but we are committed with my colleagues in the National Working Committee to face the problems squarely to see if the problems are solvable to solve them by the grace of God.
On what he’s going to do to stem the tide of defections, he said: “You have no guarantee, we are in politics for God’s sake, I don’t know what will happen tomorrow. How can I foresee tomorrow, I am not the person who sees tomorrow”.
