Abuja – The former National Chairman of Alliance for Democracy (AD), Mr Rafiu Salau, in Abuja on Thursday announced his resignation from the party.
Salau said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that he would work with those who had the same ideology with AD founding fathers to form a new party.
He said on the sidelines of the party’s national convention that his major reason for leaving the party was because AD had failed to abide by its laid-down constitution.
“I have resigned from the AD because I do not want to belong to a party that cannot even abide by its own constitution.
“A convention should have at least 5,000 delegates; today, what I’m seeing is they enforced only three delegates from each state and not more than 130 members are there for the convention.
“It shows the party is already down, it has gone.
“Now, what we are planning for is we want to bring in the ideology and orientation of the founding fathers of our democracy, Sardauna, Awolowo and Azikiwe. Those are the people that served the people in a democratic system.
“Those who believe in our own leadership should leave the party for them and come and we have to now form a new political party,’’ Salau told NAN.
He said the new party would go on to become the second largest party in Nigeria because a two-party system was what the nation needed.
“It’s good the nation has a good party in power trying to stop corruption now but the nation needs two good political parties.
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“Now we have one in power, the nation needs another that will be there as the alternative government should the people require a change.
“We will now go and form a new party, a good formidable opposition with those who believe in our ideology and orientation of a new party, which would work very well for the nation and work for the interest of the nation.
“Those who believe in our own leadership should leave their party for them and come and we have to now form a new political party,’’ Salau said.
Meanwhile, the new National Chairman, Chief Joseph Avase, said he would take the party to a more respectable level by playing “a more mature politics’’.
“Our idea of politics is not the traditional concept of opposition. We think for a country like Nigeria to succeed with this precarious situation we are in, all hands need to be on deck.
“We are going to ensure the respect of the rule of law and we intend to win Edo state in the next election next year. We will be transparent and I know we shall take this party to the next level.
“We need to build a demarcation between politics and national interest so our opposition will be to help and build Nigeria together with the government of the day.
“We will have to advise, we will have to engage ourselves in politics and how they are being implemented to ensure we get it right.’’
The new party Secretary, Mr Akin Fasogbon, told NAN that he was impressed with the AD for electing youths into leadership positions.
“Alliance for Democracy is known for carrying the youth along because we are the future of tomorrow, you can see my age, and the leader wanted new people to come in.’’
Debunking what the former chairman said, Fasogbon said: “ This is the exact number of delegates we need, three each from each state and the FCT.
“He lost. How can he resign when he has lost an election?
“Alliance for democracy is the next party to watch out for. If you look at the PDP they have failed, currently the APC is failing Nigerians but the only party that cannot fail Nigerians is the AD.
“We were tested between 1999 and 2003 in this nation and where we governed we did excellently well and there hasn’t been any government like that till today.’’ (NAN