Ex-presidential aspirant Adamu Garba dumps APC

Hours after announcing his decision not to buy the APC presidential nomination form, Adamu Garba has dumped the party, alleging that it has “lost its moral bearings.”

Mr Garba said the APC has drifted from its core values.

“I cannot continue to retain membership of a party that favours money beyond competency, vested interest beyond common interest, chronic elitism beyond public good, politics of exclusion beyond inclusion.

“I do not in all honesty, sincerely and with consciousness believe that any young man in Nigeria has a future or model worthy of emulation for the benefit of Nigeria in APC. I believe the party has drifted so much from the original beliefs of its foundation to something more cynical, undemocratic institution,” he told the BBC Hausa.

Mr Garba has not announced the party he would be joining.

He had on April 18 taken to Twitter to announce his decision to contest to become Nigeria’s next president under the APC.

In his mission statement, he promised to make the Central Bank of Nigeria independent and ensure the reorganisation of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation.

He, however, announced that he would not be buying the nomination form despite raking in more than N80 million from donations.

He said his decision was because the party has turned its primary election into a business venture.

“I see this (fee) as an outrageous and unnecessary way of getting money for the party. They have turned it into a business venture and it’s unacceptable. They don’t consider your capacity or what you’ve done for the development of the party.

“I’ve consulted widely, and I’ll not be consulting because I’ll not get money from well-wishers and still go-ahead to purchase forms at such an outrageous fee. I’m against financialising the political space in the country because I want us as the youth not to set a bad precedent that will make it difficult for the youth and the poor candidates to contest in an election,” he told BBC Hausa.