Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and presidential candidate of Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) has lost over 200,000 members of his Atiku Care Foundation as seven coordinators of the group from the North-West states defected to the All Progressive Congress (APC), declaring loyalty to President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2019 re-election bid.
The group which officially joined one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign organizations, the Arewa Network Group led by Abdulmajid Danbiliki Kwamanda said they decided to dump Atiku over their conviction that Nigeria would be better if President Buhari is given another mandate to return in 2019.
Speaking to Reporters in Kano, spokesman of the group and former Director of Administration and Strategy for the North-West zone of the Atiku Care Foundation, Comrade Sunusi Ababai, said over 200, 000 members of the Atiku Care Foundation in the North-West have declared their loyalty to President Buhari.
According to him, “For several years now, we have been working hard for the development of Atiku Care Foundation. A lot of promises were made when we started.
“They told us that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar needed a platform to reach out to the masses at the grass root. We were committed because there were a lot of programmes from healthcare delivery, education, entrepreneurship, and youth and women empowerment.
“We started with our own money. Nobody gave us a dime because we believed that Atiku meant well for the nation; but unfortunately, we were abandoned at a time structure of the Foundation became solid. We were waiting all these while for Atiku to finance the programmes, only for us to hear how he splashed Dollars in Rivers state just to win the PDP presidential primaries.”
Ababai said the group has decided to pitch its tent with President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2019 re-election bid for his foresight and commitment to redeem Nigeria from the shackles of corruption and poverty.
“We worked for him without money, but he did not even appreciate our efforts and contributions. We believe that if such a person is given the mandate, he will disappoint Nigerians. So, our support for President Buhari is based on our personal conviction that he is the Messiah Nigeria needs now.
“We call on Nigerians, particularly, the youths to rally round President Buhari and give him the mandate to correct what the PDP-led government has plunged this country into for over 16 years they held on to power.”
Also speaking, the former Director of Atiku care Foundation in-charge of Kano state, Hajia Fatima Muhammad Kabir, regretted that the former Vice President betrayed their dreams of reaching out to the less privileged through the Atiku Care Foundation.
According to her, “after listening to a series of programmes conducted by Abdulmajid Danbiliki Kwamanda, coordinator of the Arewa Media Forum, promoting President Buhari’s 2019 campaigns, I realized that President Buhari remains a better choice for Nigeria, particularly, the masses.”
