An All Progressive Congress (APC) senatorial aspirant in Kaduna state, Alhaji Lawal Adamu Usman has announced his resignation from the party.
According to a letter signed on June 29, 2018, Usman lamented that the APC, which was composed of committed comrades and loyal friends – united in the struggle for change, fairness, justice and national progress, had turned into a party at war with itself.
“It is with regret that I write to inform you that I have decided to resign my membership of the All Progressives Congress as from today.
As you will know I have been a member of the APC since its inception four years ago. I was one of its original founders back in 2014. I have since that time deployed ample energy, precious time and enormous resources towards the growth of the party and its eventual victories at state and federal levels.
“During that time, I have seen the APC grow from a merger of scattered groups of enthusiastic opposition into a major political party, covering the length and breadth of the country, which made a national breakthrough in March 2015 when it won the presidential election and a comfortable majority in the National Assembly.
“The APC, with our strong support, also won most of the state governorship and state assembly seats including those of Kaduna state with massive votes from particularly my Local Government, Kaduna North. These were significant achievements by any standard anywhere in the world.
“But here we are in 2018, just three short years after the APC’s electoral high point, and everything has gone belly up in Kaduna state.
A party that was once composed of committed comrades and loyal friends – united in the struggle for change, fairness, justice and national progress – has now turned into a party at war with itself. Bitter recriminations, acrimonious rancour and false accusations have been bandied about leading to unfair and unjustifiable persecution of loyal members by a handful of favoured government cronies. The atmosphere inside the party has today turned ugly and toxic.
“It is important that as many Nigerians as possible particularly the people of Kaduna state – whether members of the APC or not – try to undertake a calm and rational analysis of what has happened to the party that rules them, if for no other reason than to avoid repeating these mistakes in the future.
“A full post mortem of the problem in Kaduna state is absolutely vital and it is something I intend to contribute to, for the record, and before rigor mortis sets.
“A rigorous and critical analysis of the party’s internal structures and culture, of key tactical decisions, and of the party’s overall political orientation would prove that the cracks had appeared soon after the inauguration of the Malam Nasir El-Rufai’s administration when collective responsibility was jettisoned in parochial individual ego massage.
“Since that time, all known democratic norms were thrown to the winds and any form of counsel, no matter how sensible, was not tolerated. The situation degenerated steadily into a glaring rape of the sanctity of democracy as demonstrated throughout the processes leading up to the ward congresses to the local government elections and to the imposition of party executives from wards to the state levels as well as delegates to the national convention.
“These undemocratic processes were preceded by a spate of indiscriminate retributions and unfair, unjustifiable suspension of major stakeholders of the party without regards to due process and in utter disregard for the APC constitutional provisions,” he lamented.
Usman stated that he had to leave the party because of the unjust suspension of him and other party members without regard for due process.
“Firstly, is the vexed issue of my purported suspension along with several other eminent party members across the state, without first organising a proper credible internal party inquiry or commission to determine our culpability or lack of it as stipulated by the party constitution. Politically and legally, we are entitled to this much, at least after all the work we have done for the party and for the sake of natural justice.
“My decision to resign from the APC is however not entirely a result of political and personal considerations, but out of conviction that this is not the party that I was involved in creating and nourishing. Nor is it a party that I want to continue to participate in.
“I have carefully weighed this decision and made far reaching consultations in the few months since the resort to these indiscriminate persecutions as a means of restricting the space for the aspirations of many of us. It seems to me that out of respect for the Kaduna state electorates and my numerous supporters, my own political integrity and my concern for the development of democracy as a whole, it is the only principled decision that can be made in the circumstances.
“I am therefore leaving without any bitterness towards anyone. I value the many good friends I have made in the APC over the years– on both sides of the current divide.
“I am sure in the future many of us will work together in the struggle for national progress and for the search of a meaningful and more useful system of governance,” he further stated.
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