A former presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of
Nigeria (ACPN), Oby Ezekwesili, has accused the party of playing
politics with a transactional mindset that betrays her own personal
values.
The former Minister of Education announced her
decision to drop out of the February 16 presidential election on
Thursday, January 24, 2019, noting that she wants to “focus on helping
to build a veritable coalition to ensure a viable alternative to the
APC-PDP in the forthcoming elections”.
Her decision didn’t go down well with the party as its National Chairman, Ganiyu Galadima, has accused her of dishonesty.
Galadima said the former minister was using the party’s platform to
negotiate for the position of Minister of Finance with the opposition.
Galadima, who was also Ezekwesili’s running mate, further announced that the ACPN will now back President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for re-election at next month’s polls.
In a reaction to the party’s allegations,
Ezekwesili has fired back, accusing the ACPN’s leadership of “political
entrepreneurship” that clashes with her vision to mobilise citizens to
disrupt the old order politics in Nigeria.
In a signed statement she released on Friday,
January 25, she said the party’s malicious reaction to her withdrawal
proves that she made the right decision to withdraw her membership.
“How
could I upon realising the divergence of values and vision with the
leadership of the party continue to stand on such a political platform?
My abiding vision has been to mobilise citizens to disrupt the old order
politics of APCPDP.
“Nigeria and Nigerians deserve a New Order
of ethical, competent and capable leadership. I had earlier assumed the
ACPN was aligned with me to offer that, until it proved otherwise. The
values and vision divergence with the party was a key factor that
triggered my withdrawal from the presidential race on their ticket
prompting me to dissociate immediately in order to help build a
coalition for Good Governance. It is why I was instant in sacrificing my
candidacy to uphold my values by withdrawing.
“The party’s decision to
immediately today endorse the candidate of APC, which was announced by
my erstwhile VP candidate who is also the Chairman of ACPN was their
classic political entrepreneurship in full display for Nigerians to see.
It is instructive,” she said.
She said she is delighted to have dumped the
party after months of waiting for its leadership to ditch its
“transactional approach to politics” and commit to the elevation of new
values of disruptive politics that she had desired and preached within
the party.
“All who know me can attest that I detest transactional mindset,” she said.
No truth to allegations – Oby Ezekwesili
Ezekwesili remains committed to building a coalition ahead of the polls
Ezekwesili further described the party’s
several allegations against her as malicious lies that don’t align with
her values of accountability.
The party had accused her of misappropriation
of campaign funds and threatened consequences if she doesn’t return
everything she got in donations.
In response, Ezekwesili said the defamatory
statements are outright lies, and said her campaign was conducted with
the highest level of transparency and accountability with impeccable
evidence.
“Only those who desperately wish to
believe falsehoods would lend any credence to such puerile accusations
by the leadership of ACPN. Only those who pretend ignorance of my
legendary and uncompromising passion for accountability would give heed
to such baseless statement,” she said.
She further disclosed that she’ll soon address
a press conference to present a full report of her three-month old
campaign for the election to the public.
“We shall at the World Press Conference
also provide insights into the citizens movement that we are energised
and committed to build. There is no end to our zeal to end the reign of
bad politics in our country,” she said.
The former minister assured that she’ll
definitely build the coalition force that will terminate the dominance
of the two leading political parties in the 2019 elections.