A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Umar Ghali Na’abba, formally joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday, barely 48 hours after dumping the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He said the country needed change, stressing that the momentum favoured the APC presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, to win.
Na’abba added that he decided to join the APC to help to grow the momentum for change.
He spoke while addressing APC leaders at a session at the party’s national secretariat to welcome him into the fold.
His words: “I believe that most of you must have read or heard about my communication to my former party – the PDP. The total sum of my communication was that I have decided to leave the party, having being a member for the past 16 years with a brief interregnum of about one year.
“I believe that more than any time in the history of this country, this country needs a change, particularly at the top. In the last 16 years, there has been misrule in this country. Nigerians are being misruled by successive presidents of the PDP. Some of us fought over these tendencies to no success.
“I believe that the momentum today is in favour of the APC to change this country and we must never allow the momentum to go down. It is in that quest, that I feel that having resigned from the PDP, I must join the APC so that I can help grow that momentum.
“It is quite remarkable that since I left the PDP, I have been receiving calls and messages of encouragement from across Nigeria. This is to show that APC is a national party and not what they use to regard it as a religious and sectional party. People from all corners of this country have called me, including former members of the House of Representatives, who are in the APC.
“My pledge today is to work with you and the presidential candidate of the party while trying to consolidate on the gains made so far.”
Na’abba expressed confidence that the APC presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, will win at the polls on March 28.
He added: I believe that in General Buhari, we have a messiah and I also believe that democracy is about consultations. You must consult, accept and be patient. Patience is the only thing in life that when you do, you will never regret. So, let us be patient; let us be steadfast. Let me thank members of the Working Committee and other elders of the party for arranging to receive me.
“ It is very remarkable that a convention was held and a free and fair election was conducted in which Gen. Buhari emerged as the presidential candidate of the party and I am a witness to how popular Gen. Buhari is, not just in the North, but all over the country.
“I am happy that he is going to be the next president of this country and when he becomes the next president of Nigeria, it is our desire that he continues to be a national leader and not a sectional leader.” Nigerians, Na’abba said, have come a long way, adding that the nation could not continue to be ruled on the basis of divisiveness.
He gave insights into why he decided to join political leaders of like minds in APC.
The former Speaker of the House of Representatives said: “When I and other senior members of the party left the PDP between 2005 and 2007, a lot of things happened that we thought were undemocratic and we had to leave the party. Eventually, some of us returned after the late President Umaru Yar’Adua made certain promises to effect change in the party, which never happened.
“We thought that we could cohabit within the party and it is a sad commentary on that party that today, majority of not only the founding fathers, but founding members have left the party, and many of them are on this high table. Our elder and father, Alhaji Ishiaku Ibrahim, is a founding member of the party, a member of the Board of Trustees and Chief Audu Ogbeh, who was a former chairman of the party. We also have some of my colleagues here and others who we could not invite due to theconstraint of time.
“It is barely two weeks to elections and it is important that I come here and be received so that we will go and continue to work towards the success of the party.”
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