FORMER Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has explained why he dumped the Peoples Democratic Party for the All Progressives Congress barely two years after he decamped from the same party.
The former Speaker, whose latest move was announced by Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State, after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, hinged his decision on the claim that Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State was repeating the mistake of the previous administration.
He said if he remained in PDP, he would not be able to keep faith with his principles of fighting for good governance.
He made these claims in his resignation letter, addressed to the Chairman of the PDP in his ward, Bogoro ‘C’ Ward, Bogoro Local Government Area of Bauchi.
The former Speaker currently represents Dass/Tafawa Balewa/Bogoro Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives.
In the letter, dated 24th July, 2020, Dogara said, “I write to formally intimate you of my decision to resign my membership of the People’s Democratic Party. This became necessary because the same reasons why we fought hard in 2019 to effect change in the governance of our dear state are festering now.
“I intend to bring these issues to the front burner once again as the fight to instill decent and egalitarian government in our dear state continues. Specifically, I intend to ask questions about the following: What has happened to LGA allocations since May 2019? What happened to our campaign promise to conduct LGA elections within six months of the PDP government?”
He also queried the rationale behind “the N4.6 billion loan taken from a bank and paid directly into a private company’s account?”
Dogara said, “Why are we segmenting salaries and why is payment of salaries of state workers outsourced to a private firm as consultants? Why are contracts inflated, awarded and payment of mobilisation done in violation of extant rules on procurement?
“Why are our highly revered traditional rulers and elders treated with odium contrary to the guarantee we have during the campaign that such will not happen under a PDP government?”
He argued that if he had raised the issues as a PDP member, he could be accused of disloyalty.
He said, “Mr. Chairman, you will agree with me that I cannot raise these issues and many more questions without a charge of disloyalty leveled against me if I were to remain a member of the PDP.
“I cannot also fail to raise these questions now, having raised similar ones during the administrations of Governors Isa Yuguda and Mohammed A. Abubakar. If I abdicate this responsibility on the altar of partisan loyalty, I will be the most irresponsible and unprincipled politician in Bauchi State.
“Thus, by this letter, I have resigned my membership of the PDP to enable me keep faith with my principle of fighting for good governance in our dear state.”
