Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar says the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has failed the Nigerian people.
Atiku, who said this on Sunday in a Facebook video, also announced his defection to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“I want to let you know that I am returning home to the PDP as the issues that led me to leave it have now been resolved and it is clear that the APC has let the Nigerian people, and especially our young people, down,” he said.
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This comes barely two weeks after the former presidential candidate announced his resignation from the APC on November 24.
Hours after the announcement, the PDP said its doors were open for Atiku to return to the party while the APC said it was yet to be sure whether it would miss him or not.
Amid criticism over his exit from the ruling party, the vice president said in the video that although he was part of the founding fathers of the PDP, he left the party when he believed it was no longer aligned to the principles of equity, democracy, and social justice.
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He added that after the PDP had resolved the issues which made him exit the party, he has decided to return home as the APC had failed to effect the change it promised Nigerians.
“I joined the APC as I had hoped it would be the new force that would help improve life for our people and I was excited about the party’s manifesto to create three million new jobs a year.
“The result has not been the change people had been promised or voted for as, in the last two years, almost three million Nigerians have lost their jobs.
“And today with a record 25% of people aged 18-25 unemployed, I can see how difficult it is for our youths to find a job. The key to creating jobs is a strong economy and that is what we are currently lacking,” Atiku said.
Atiku was the vice to former President Olusegun Obasanjo from 1999 to 2007 after Nigeria returned to democracy.
After the end of Obasanjo’s administration, he contested and lost the presidential election of 2007 on the platform of the then Action Congress.
He had declared his intention to run for the presidency in 2011 but also lost to former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The former vice president joined the APC in February 2014 and remained in the party until his exit on November 24, 2017.
