APC Presidential Aspirant Quits Party over N100m Nomination Forms

 *Accuses Adamu of commercialising primary process

Sunday Aborisade

One of the presidential aspirants in the All Progressives Congress, Adamu Garba, resigned from the party on Tuesday.

He promised to announce his new party within the next few days and advised all those who had contributed money to his campaign to seek refund immediately.

Garba stated this at a news conference in Abuja.

He said, “We have recorded the sum of N81,750,000.00 in private donations and N1,457, 794.70 in online donations. Totaling N83,207,794.70. 

“We sincerely, immensely, and graciously thank everyone for these wonderful contributions and donations, including those who made theirs anonymously. 

“We, however, request that all those who donated online and who require a refund send an email with evidence of payment to adamugarba@adamugarba.org. I assure you of a complete refund upon request. 

“Those that made private donations, we know them, we will meet them and settle this out. 

“Incidentally, if your donations are done for pursuing our course for the Presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the coming 2023 election, the battle is not over yet. Kindly do bear with us for further directives in the coming days. 

“I deeply immensely appreciate my supporters, friends, well-wishers, and the well meaning Nigerian Youth who contributed unceasingly to this journey.”

He alleged that the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led National Working Committee of the APC had commercialised the  process that could lead to the the emergence of a credible aspirant who could fly the party’s ticket in the 2023 general elections.

He also expressed the fears that the leadership of the party could further compromise the process with the inclusion of the voluntary withdrawal form in the nomination and expression of interest forms.

Garba argued that the NWC would probably adopt consensus to pick its anointed candidate and ask other aspirants who had obtained forms with N100m to seek refund.

He maintained that the Adamu-led NWC’s latest directive that 10 statutory delegates must sign the forms of the aspirants had automatically made the party’s ticket accessible only to the highest bidder.

He said, “Information at our disposal had it that some aspirants are paying as much as N50,000 to each statutory delegate to get their forms signed.”

He said, “After high-level deliberation with our internal campaign team, we have concluded that we will not be obtaining the expression of interest and nomination form for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the platform of the APC. 

“Our generation should not set an example as part of the people that supported the financialization/commercialization of our political space, especially the public office, considering the high cost of the nomination forms. 

“The highest in the world. We believe this action is capable of over commercialisation of our political space, institutionalising vote-buying, encouraging corruption, and complete obliteration the youth and the poor from participation.”

“We further discovered that even if we went ahead to obtain the form, the party has foreclosed the plan for primary election because of the presence of the request for a Letter of Voluntary withdrawal on page 18 of the nomination form. 

“I cannot, in all honesty, rally funds from my supporters in the hope that we will be having a primary election, then sign a postdated letter of voluntary withdrawal from the contest. 

“The party, from its convention to this moment, has taken several steps that may likely dent our democratic credentials as we venture into the third decade of our uninterrupted democracy. 

“These steps, if not changed, could reverse the gains we make over time and return us back to centrist, sycophantic, patronage-driven unitary systems, a situation we have to avoid at all costs in the interest of the future of Nigeria. 

“Recalled that I had made a similar lamentation to the APC in the run-up to the 2019 election, it appears, with this decision, the party clearly shows that only money matters in who becomes the leader of the largest black nation on earth.”