TheCable

Former minister Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has claimed that he left the All Progressives Congress (APC) because some members of the biggest opposition party have sympathy for Boko Haram.

He has returned to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), putting an end to months of speculations that he was going back to the ruling party.

“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,” he said in a statement on Monday night.

He also said the party was “working hard silently” and “behind the scenes” to produce an all-Muslim pairing for the 2015 presidential election and accused the APC of being unfair to Christians because “all the substantive positions of the national executive of the party are made up of almost exclusively Muslims”.

Fani-Kayode, who declared for APC publicly last year and formally joined the party in February 2014, recently wrote a two-part article warning the party from going ahead with its plan of fielding a Muslim-Muslim ticket in the presidential election.

His former colleague minister, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, who is also a member of the APC, however said merit should come before religion in picking the candidates of the party.

Fani-Kayode said on Monday that he believes religion should not play a part in politics “but a situation where members of the Christian faith are not treated as equals… is unacceptable to me”.

He said some leaders of the party are also opposed to the “religious agenda of that the few have”.

“I am not prepared to stay and fight from within because the very presence of any closet Haramites (Boko Haram sympathisers) on the same political platform as me is something that I find utterly repugnant,” he said.

He gave instances of the party’s public positions which he is opposed to.

“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 not 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 its leaders are more interested in playing politics with the whole Chibok issue and hurling bricks at our military.

“I cannot be in a party in which the role of one of its 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 where one of its founding members is allegedly the founder of Boko Haram. 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 monumental risks and been guided by my principles,” he said.

He also joined issues with APC spokesman, Lai Mohammed, who said he was never a member of the party.

He recalled: “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.”