By Musa Baba Adamu
Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), David Babachir Lawal, has carpeted President Bola Tinubu and leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for allegedly transitioning the ruling party from its national party status at inception to the present Islamic party.
He accused the party of being insensitive and taking Nigerians for granted in unlawful ways and manners the nomenclature of the party was thwarted to suit their purpose.
In a fresh statement he issued in Abuja on Wednesday, Babachir Lawal challenged the ruling party to be courageous enough to change the name of the party from the All Progressives Congress (APC)to Islamic Party of Nigeria (IPN).
He was reacting scathing remark made against him by APC, following his Tuesday’s statement that Peter Obi and not Tinubu won the 2023 presidential election.
APC through one Felix Morka had challenged and castigated Babachir Lawal on his audacity to make the statement.
But the ex-SGF said that he stood by his position and asked APC to address the issues he raised rather than castigating him.
He said: “I woke up this morning to a very pathetic social media trending write-up, apparently a response to my article on the current political discourse by one Felix, allegedly of the APC.
“I suspect he was assigned this role because it is in the nature of sycophants and people consigned to second-class status to be assigned roles that their masters are wary of taking on.
“Usually, the dirty, unsavoury jobs are contracted out to such. In the bible, a certain Felix (after which this Felix was probably named) was a freed slave who had a reputation of cruelty as the ruler of Judea in order to please his master, the emperor Claudius (of whose mother Felix was a slave).
“I really do sympathise with a Christian who finds himself in an Islamic party and is desperate to please his masters and probably to be noticed when the next round of political appointments come.
“When we founded APC way back in 2013/2014, we envisaged it will be a national party that would carry along all the different socio-political and religious tendencies of the nation.
“In those days, we were careful not to sideline any of the religions or tribes of the country in the composition of the membership and leadership of the party.
‘We wanted a party that will embrace all Nigerians. It was this that informed the principle that both the National Chairman and Secretary will not be of the same religion, tribe or region.
“Sadly, APC has now transitioned into an Islamic Party of Nigeria. All the members of the National Working Committee (NWC) from the North and some from the South are Muslims.”
