Felix Morka, the National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has pointed fingers at former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the cause of the internal crisis troubling the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to a report by Naturenex, Morka, during an appearance on TVC on Friday, April 25, 2025, claimed that Atiku disregarded the PDP’s zoning arrangement by contesting the 2023 presidential election, despite an agreement that the ticket should be ceded to the South.
In his words, “The problem in the PDP was Atiku’s obdurate refusal to abide by the convention of his own party and its constitution. He had no business running in that election when, under their constitution, a southern candidate was mandated, under the rotational agreement, to run.
“He was the one who created the problem. So it wasn’t just his nomination, he was, in fact, at the root of the problem the PDP is facing today.”
Addressing concerns raised about Nigeria’s political landscape potentially tilting towards a one-party system due to the wave of defections to the APC, Morka dismissed such fears. He insisted that welcoming members from other political groups doesn’t undermine the country’s democratic process.
He stated, “The APC today, clearly, in comparison to all of the other parties in the opposition, is holding its own.
“Our party is standing very strong and resilient, even in the face of enormous pressures, both internal and external, and that’s what a party should be. A political party shouldn’t be an entity without its own internal challenges.
“But I think what matters is how it deals with those challenges — how the party manages those contradictions or internal conflicts of interest, which are natural to every institution, especially a political party that is an agglomeration of people who may have diverse interests and come from diverse backgrounds.
“There is no democratic idea, norm, or system anywhere in the world where a ruling party is under obligation to build the opposition.
“Parties are in business to compete for power. That’s what they are supposed to do. That’s the idea behind any democratic system.
“So this idea, this suggestion that people coming into the APC means the APC is undermining democracy, is ridiculous.”
