Yakasai, Zorro Laud Defection Of PDP Governors To APC

Notable Nigerians have continued to laud the defection of aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governors to the All Progressives Congress, APC, describing the movement as a political revolution capable of breaking the ankle of PDP come 2015.

Elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai and former President of Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ, Malam Sani Zorro in different comments, described the development as a plus to Nigeria’s democracy.

Yakasai who was Political Adviser to ex-President Shehu Shagari in the Second Republic said the defection of the G-7 governors to the APC is an eye-opener to the PDP leadership who would now be forced to buckle up and face realities.

P.M.NEWS recalls that a group of seven governors in the PDP had shown their anger during the party’s convention last August when they walked out from the event in protest to what they have continued to describe as lack of internal democracy and highhandedness in the Bamanga Tukur’s led leadership.

They had left at the beacon of ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar who led the group to form a parallel leadership.

Following the development, the APC leadership formed a high-powered delegation under the guide of General Muhammadu Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which visited the aggrieved PDP governors, wooing them to the APC.

Accordng to Yakasai, “the implication is that the PDP is now down 18, instead of 22, APC will now have 16 governors.  One can project that the governorship election in 2015 will be altered as the PDP may lose four states, Sokoto, Kano, Rivers and Adamawa.”

Yakasai, however, noted that it is not yet Uhuru for the APC as there is much work to do on integrating and harmonizing the new comers with the old members of the party.

Malam Sani Zorro in his opinion said the option taken by the defecting governors was welcome development to the nation’s democracy.

According to him, “it is a testimony to the progressive political development in the history of Nigeria in recent times,” pointing out that the birth of APC, “is the fourth merger out of so many that have been tried and has failed since 1981 to date, where so many efforts were made by the progressives to come together but this time, it has come to stay.”

Sani Zorro congratulated the defecting governors, “for their determination and foresight. I also congratulate the leadership APC for forging the alliance of three parties.”

—Maduabuchi Nmeribeh/Kano