APC presidential campaign and the fight against corruption: Where do former PDP Chieftains stand?

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, January 7, 2019 inaugurated the the APC Presidential Campaign Council at an elaborate ceremony at the International Conference Centre, Abuja with a renewed vigour to fight the canker worm of corruption which has eaten deep in the fabric of the Nigerian state.

Buhari in his remarks at inauguration stressed that, “victory for us (APC) as a party is a victory for all well meaning Nigerians, who are committed to CHANGE from an inglorious past; where those in positions of public trust willfully took for themselves what belongs to us all; where the security of our citizens was second place to their acquisition of unwholesome wealth; where our economic growth was sacrificed for the fleeting ease of import dependency”.

“We have reset our national values: corruption is no longer condoned and is no longer seen as normal for public office holders. The agencies of government are no longer equivocal in dealing with anyone who flouts our laws.

“The high and low are receiving jail terms, loots are being recovered, and Nigerians are increasingly displaying the timeless values of honesty, honour and decency. I congratulate us all for making these changes possible”.

The Buhari led APC Federal government from campaign, pen-ultimate to the 2015 general elections to the time of governance has made the fight against corruption its watch word with the most taunted slogan of, ‘if we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill us’.

The anti-corruption war has claimed many victims some of which are still languishing in jail even with court orders for their release with stories of Sambo Dasuki, former National Security Adviser, Olisa Metuh, former Peoples Democratic Party, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Alison Madueke, former Minister of Petroleum, Joshua Dariye, former Plateau State Governor and a serving Senator, among others are very fresh in memory.

Poignantly, the former ruling PDP and all their members have been characterized as the metaphor of corruption with which the fight has been channelled as the APC government minced no words at any given forum to demonized former government officials and politicians of PDP fold as corruption personified.

Ironically, however, Buhari has been working with politicians who received their partisan baptism in the sinful PDP but have been canonized into the sainthood of APC and most of them are now heading strategic positions in his reelection campaign even as some of them have reported cases of corruption against them. They include:

Rotimi Amechi, DirectorGeneral, Buhari Campaign Organization

Rotimi Amechi is the current Minister of Transport and second term Director- General of President Muhammadu Bu- hari Campaign Organization. Amechi was elected Member and Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly on the platform of PDP. He later served two terms as Governor of Rivers State on the platform of PDP but his political disagreement with the then President Goodluck Jonathan made him dumped PDP for APC in 2014.

George Akume, Vice Chairman North

George Akume, a third term Senator is the Vice Chairman North, Buhari Campaign Organization.

Akume was two terms Governor of Benue State under PDP from 1999 -2007. He was also elected into Senate first on the ticket of PDP(2007- 2011). Akume defected from PDP to ACN following plans by his successor, Gabriel Suswam to deny him second term ticket for the 2011 general elections. He was reelected on the platform of ACN and when the party collapsed in APC he remained there.

Ken Nnmani, Vice Chairman South

Ken Nnamani, Vice Chair- man South of the Buhari Campaign Organization is a former Nigerian Senate President elected on the ticket of PDP. Since 1999, this great politician of national viability has been a Chieftain of PDP until 2017 when he joined APC following his appointment as the Head of the Electoral Reform Committee by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Aliyu Wamako, North West Zonal Director

Aliyu Wamako who is the North West Zonal Director of the Buhari Campaign Organization was the Governor of Sokoto between 2007 and 2015 on the ticket of PDP. He left PDP to APC at the twilight of his tenure and was elected into the Senate in 2015 polls under APC.

Abdullahi Adamu, North Central Zonal Director

Abdullahi Adamu is the North Central Zonal Director of the Buhari Campaign Organization and a second term Senator Representing Nasarawa West. Adamu was Governor of Nasarawa State from 1999 - 2007 under the platform of PDP. He became Secretary of the Board of Trustees of PDP at the end of his two terms tenure. Adamu was elected Senator in 2011, still on the ticket of PDP but joined APC towards the end of his first term in the Senate.

Godswill Akpabio, South South Zonal Director

Godswill Akpabio is the South South Zonal Director of the Buhari Campaign Organization who was Governor of Akwa Ibom State for two terms and Chairman of PDP Governors Forum. Akpabio was elected as Senator also on the ticket of PDP and he became Senate Minority Leader from 2015 until he joined APC in 2018.

Ita Enang, Council Member

Ita Enang, a Member of the APC Campaign Council and Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate). Enang has been in PDP since 1999 to 2015 was elected variously as a Member of the House of Representatives and Senator on the party’s platform.