Prof Itse Sagay (SAN), Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, has described the return of former House of Reps Speaker, Yabuku Dogara to the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) as a huge dent on the party’s image.
Dogara who dumped the APC for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) prior to the 2019 general elections was led by Governor Mala Buni of Benue State to meet President Muhammadu Buhari at the state house.
Governor Buni, Chairman of the APC Caretaker/National Planning Committee on Friday announced Dogara’s defection after a meeting with Buhari at the Presidential Villa.
In his reaction, Sagay said the APC as a principled party should not have welcomed Dogara to rejoin the party.
See Also: Former Reps Speaker Dogara Dumps PDP
He said, “For me, this is a big setback for the image of the APC. I think it’s an illustration of the fact that we are yet to adopt ideology and principles in our politics. Because if you have an ideology and philosophy, you won’t be hopping from one party to another.
“So, it creates a negative image of Nigeria and our political parties as immature. Otherwise, nobody drove Dogara away from APC. He woke up one day and decided to follow his friend Bukola Saraki to PDP. Why didn’t he stay there? Why is he back to APC again? So, for him, there is no difference between the two parties.
“This is something the APC should begin to seriously consider whether there is no difference between APC and PDP. If we are the same, why did we unseat the PDP in the first place if we are not bringing in new values to governance?
“If we are not the same, then if a person finds something good enough in PDP to go there, we should let him remain there and not just take him back. This whole idea of allowing people to jump in and out of parties has to stop.
“Otherwise, parties will not develop, there will be no philosophy, ideology and it will be just be parties of chop-I-chop. It shows there is no purpose at all but just a platform for people to satisfy their material needs.”
Source: Sahara Reporters