The National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Felix Morka, has blamed former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, for the brouhaha currently rocking the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Speaking on TVC on Friday, Morka stated that Atiku disregarded the party’s constitution by running for president in 2023 despite a zoning arrangement that was in favour of the south.
“The problem in the PDP was Atiku’s obdurate refusal to abide by the convention of his own party and its constitution.
“He had no business running for that election when, under their constitution, a southern candidate was mandated as, you know, under the rotational agreement to run.
“He was the one who created the problem. So it wasn’t his nomination. He was, you know, at the root of the problem that the PDP is facing today,” he added.
Morka was reacting to concerns that recent defections to the ruling party could push Nigeria towards a one-party state.
“The APC today, clearly, in comparison to all of the other parties in the opposition, is holding its own.Related News
“Our party is standing very strong and resilient, even in the face of enormous pressures, both internal and external, and that’s what a party should be,” Morka averred.
He stressed that every political organisation is bound to face difficult times.
“A political party shouldn’t be that entity that is without its own internal challenges.
“But I think what matters is how it deals with it — how the party manages those contradictions or internal contradictions or conflicts of interest, which is natural to every institution, especially a political party that’s an agglomeration of people who may have diverse interests and from diverse backgrounds,” he said.
Morka decried talks that the APC is weakening democracy by receiving defectors from other parties.
“There is no democratic idea or norms or system anywhere in the world where a party, a ruling party, is under obligation to build the opposition.
“Parties are in business to compete for power. That’s what they are supposed to do. That’s the idea behind any democratic system.
“So this idea, this suggestion that people come into APC, therefore APC is undermining democracy, that is ridiculous,” he added.
