A former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, on Friday
announced his withdrawal from the governing All Progressives Congress, APC.
In Friday’s announcement, Mr. Abubakar said he was still
pondering his next political move. But if he ends up returning to the major
opposition Peoples Democratic Party as he is widely expected to do, it will be
the third time that Mr. Abubakar will be returning to the party after defecting
to other parties.
He was a founding member of the PDP in 1998.
He was a founding member of the PDP in 1998.
1999-2006.
Mr. Abubakar was elected governor of his home state,
Adamawa, in 1999 on the PDP ticket.
Before he could be sworn in as governor, he was picked as
running mate by Olusegun Obasanjo who secured the PDP presidential ticket. The
ticket proceeded to win the presidency, with Mr. Abubakar becoming Vice
President from May 29, 1999 and for a second term in 2003.
2006-2009.
Before the end of their second term, however, Mr.
Abubakar left the PDP for the first time in 2006 and joined Action Congress,
AC, after years of internal battle with Mr. Obasanjo.
The influence of Mr. Atiku in the PDP was systematically
eroded through fresh membership registration that saw most of his supporters
pushed out of the party, all in a bid by Mr. Obasanjo to ensure that he was not
nominated as his successor.
Mr. Abubakar thus defected to pick the AC ticket to run
for president in the 2007 election.
He was in AC from 2006 to 2009. Following disagreements
with one of the leaders of the AC and former governor of Lagos State, Bola
Tinubu, the former vice president dumped the AC and returned to the PDP in
2009.
2009-2013
Mr. Abubakar ran for the PDP presidential ticket in the
2011 election and lost to incumbent Goodluck Jonathan.
Following the success of the PDP in 2011 and the appointment of Bamanga Tukur as the national chairman of the PDP, the party was engulfed in a serious crisis.
Following the success of the PDP in 2011 and the appointment of Bamanga Tukur as the national chairman of the PDP, the party was engulfed in a serious crisis.
Mr. Abubakar alongside seven governors eventually staged
a walk out of a PDP national convention in August 2013, accusing the leadership
of the party and then President Jonathan of impunity.
They eventually formed the ‘new PDP.’
2013-2017
After efforts to reconcile with the Bamanga Tukur-led PDP
failed and their push to stop Mr. Jonathan from running for election also
failed, Mr. Abubakar and five of the governors and others announced in November
2013 defected to the APC.
Mr. Abubakar and a former Kano State governor who was
also in the ‘new PDP’, Rabiu Kwankwaso, ran for APC presidential ticket and
lost to Muhammadu Buhari who eventually won the 2015 election.
Mr. Abubakar remained in the APC but has been
consistently absent in many of the party’s activities at the national level.
The former vice president had complained that Mr. Buhari and the party had been side-lining him.
The former vice president had complained that Mr. Buhari and the party had been side-lining him.
November 2017-???
Mr. Abubakar eventually defected from the APC on
Thursday, November 24. Reports suggest that he has done so because he has
received commitment of the PDP to give him its platform to again run for
president in 2019.
The former vice president has, however, not formally
declared for the PDP, nor has he declared he would run for the 2019 presidency
although he is expected to do both.
Whether he will remain in PDP or his new party for long
remains to be seen, given that he had announced on September 2014 that “As for
me, as far as I am concerned, APC is my last bus stop.”
Source: Premium Times
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