Nigerians have expressed mixed reactions to the exit of a former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, from the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC to the opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP.
Mr. Abubakar had on November 24 announced his exit from the APC giving several reasons as to why he made that decision.
“While other parties have purged themselves of the arbitrariness and unconstitutionality that led to fractionalisation, the All Progressives Congress has adopted those same practices and even gone beyond them to institute a regime of a draconian clampdown on all forms of democracy within the party and the government it produced”, he said in his statement.
He went ahead to criticise the APC, stating that the party has not only failed the Nigerian youth but also failed to take their welfare as priority..
Barely a week later, Mr. Abubakar announced his return to the PDP on Facebook Live, adding that he would focus more on job creation and youth development in his speech. The ex-official has not hidden his desire to contest for the presidency in 2019.
“Creating jobs is something I know about as I have created over 50,000 direct jobs and 250,000 indirect jobs in my own state of Adamawa,” he said.
Amidst the debate generated by Mr. Atiku’s move, many Nigerians have expressed diverse views.
A senator, Ben-Murray Bruce earlier tweeted, “Just watched @atiku, the next President of Nigeria, #Atikulately announcing he would return to my party, the @OfficialPDPNig. We in the PDP already have a good retirement package for President @MBuhari. Time to #ChangeTheChange
Below are some other reactions:
