President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, mentioned the key factor for the formation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by the legacy parties.
President Buharu spoke in Abuja during the launch of a book entitled “From Opposition to Governing Party: Nigeria’s APC Merger Story”, written by the Minister of Science and Technology and one of the founding leaders of the APC, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu.
The President said the leaders of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and a faction of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) had to make sacrifice in order prevent the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from destroying Nigeria.
“My relationship with the author is cordial. When I was placed in protective custody, he was sending people to greet me regularly. That was how the relationship developed. We realised in 2015 that unless we come together, the PDP will succeed in killing Nigeria. We had to make sacrifices,” Buhari said while giving an insight into the relationship he had with Dr Onu.
In his remarks at the occasion, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar observed that Nigeria was “not the pioneers in realizing the imperative of smaller opposition parties to come together to challenge a dominant governing party that had lost its soul and abandoned patriotic principles”.
Tukaki Adamawa, however, said Nigeria’s size and place in Africa made the merger a story with enormous lessons and implications for other African countries.
He congratulated Dr Onu for writing the book for posterity, expressing confidence in his capacity to discharge his ‘current and difficult assignment’ as Minister of Science and Technology.
Earlier, Dr. Onu, had advised President Buhari to assure the protesting youths in the South-East geo-politica zone that the APC government meant well for them, and said the book would aid the APC to learn from the mistakes by the PDP
“This book will help APC to learn from the mistakes of the PDP and avoid what led to their downfall. In this journey of merger, the hand of God was clearly with us. Most people thought it was insurmountable. It is important for me to stress that in writing this book, I do not have any other interest, but to contribute to history. APC will help transform Nigeria into a great nation. The hands of God have remained with this nation. We must all work together to build a Nigeria that is united, strong and prosperous,” he said.
The book launch was attended by Sokoto state Governor Aminu Tambuwal, former governors of Sokoto and Kano; Senator Aliyu Wamakko and Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, among other key political chieftains.
