Controversial
and outspoken two-time former minister Femi Fani Kayode has left the APC and
explains why he left the party in a statement released this evening...see
below...
I declared for the APC
in June last year in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti state well before the party was registered
by INEC. I formally joined the party, amidst great fanfare, on 7th February 2014
in my hometown Ile-Ife and I registered my membership on that day. The
registration was done outside the Ooni's palace and it was done in the prescence
of the media, numerous party leaders in the state, including Hon. Rotimi
Makinde, who represents Ile-Ife at the Federal House, and all the other key
leaders of the APC in the state and Ife-Ife including Chief Akantioke and Alhaji
Soko Adewoyin the former Deputy Governor of Osun state. After registering we
proceeded to pay a courtesy call on my traditional ruler, the Ooni of Ife, and
from there I went to spend a few days with Governor Rauf Aregbesola who,
together with Governor Kayode Fayemi, I am close to and I consider to be
friends.
I have stated these facts and set the record straight due
to the fact that Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the spokesman of the APC, had the effontry
to say in an interview with Premium Times magazine earlier today, that I was
never a member of the APC and that I never joined them formally. He also went
further to say that had if I had been a member of the APC the party would have
sanctioned me for expressing my opposition to the idea of a muslim/muslim
ticket. The truth is that Mohammed is not only a liar but he is also a coward.
If he wanted to know the truth he and those that sent him to issue the statement
could have called me and asked me.
He ought to have done his homework before speaking out. I
was not only a member of the APC but I was also a leader of that party and a
foundational member. Yet once I joined I began to see things as they really
were. I have never been and will never be part of a cult and the fact that
people like Mohammed and those he represents within the APC are not comfortable
with any form of admonition or criticism from senior party members like me
speaks volumes. I have nothing but the fondest thoughts and memories for the
majority of APC leaders including all the governors and most of the Presidential
aspirants but today I have an important announcement to make. I wish to inform
the general public that as at today, 2nd June 2014, I have
left the APC and gone back to the PDP. I wish the APC well in all their
endeavours but as at today we have parted ways forever and my spirit has left
them. My reasons for leaving the party are because I consider nation-building as
being far more important than party politics, party affiliation or party
formations. I am a devout and committed christian and I cannot remain in a party
where a handful of people that have sympathies for Boko Haram and that have a
clear islamic agenda are playing a leading role. This is made all the more
untenable when some of those people are working hard silently and behind the
scenes to impose a muslim/muslim ticket on the party for the Presidential
elections next year.
I believe that religion ought to play no part in politics
but a situation where members of the christian faith are not treated as equals
and where the all the substantive positions of the National Executive of the
party are made up of almost exclusively muslims is unacceptable to me. In
fairness to the members of the party there are many leaders within it's ranks
who share my views and who are also opposed to the religious agenda that the few
have but I am not prepared to stay and fight from within because the very
prescence of any closet Haramites on the same political platform as me is
something that I find utterly repugnant. I have raised these issues privately
with virtually every key party leader including most of the governors but
nothing has changed. I cannot be in a party in which the spokesman. Lai
Mohammed, only last year said that it was wrong and ''unconstitutional'' for the
Federal Government to proscribe Boko Haram.
This is the same Boko Haram that has killed no less than
15,000 Nigerians in the last three years. I cannot be in a party where the
leading Presidential candidate, only last year said that Boko Haram ought to be
killed but ought to be treated like the Niger Delta militants, granted amnesty
without any conditions, pampered and paid and who said, in 2001, that muslims
should only vote for people who will protect their faith. I cannot be in a party
where a number of leading people question the secularity of the state and yet
those people are not called to order by the so-called party leaders and where
such people seem to hold sway. I cannot be in a party which appears to have
politicised the whole of the Chibok issue and who are not sincere in trying to
get the girls back.
I cannot be in a party where a few of it's leaders are more
interested in playing politics with the whole Chibok issue and hurling bricks at
our military for not doing a better job. I cannot be in a party in which the
role of one of it's governors is not clear on the Chibok issue: this is a
governor that has not been able to explain to the world why he insisted that the
girls should do their exams in that school and remain in Chibok for the night
even though WAEC and the Federal Government had warned them about the dangers of
doing so. I cannot be in a party in which dissent and a differing opinion with
others on fundamental issues is seen as an offence and something to be frowned
upon or to be queried or expelled for. I have been in politics for the last 24
years of my life and all along I have taken monuemental risks and been guided by
my princples. I have also exhibited that I have the courage of my convictions
and more often that not I have dared to say what many others are thiniking but
dare not to say. It is clear to me that such sentiments are not appreciated in
the APC under it's present leadership and consequently I have chosen to move on.
I believe that every religion and every ethnic nationality in this country ought
to be treated with the greatest respect even within the context of a political
party. I believe that we are all equal before God regardless of our religious
differences.
A situation whereby,
as a christian, I am made to feel that I am a second class citizen in any
association or political party which I am part of and for which I have taken
risks is unacceptable to me. In order for any political party to move our
country forward you need the input, support and confidence of the adherents of
ALL religious faiths and not just that of the muslims. This is something that
some in the APC do not seem to appreciate. As a christian I feel deeply
offended by some of the rhetoric and behaviour of some of the APC leaders and I
cannot be expected to remain silent in the face of such expressions. These are
the main reasons why I have left the APC. I wish them well in all their
endeavours and like I said earlier many of their key leaders and governors
remain my personal friends and will continue to do so even after this. Thanks
and may God guide and bless Nigeria.
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