Last week, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, rejoined the All Progressives Congress (APC) after 18 months he left for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to seek reelection back to the lower chamber of the National Assembly as the member representing Bogoro/Dasa/Tafawa Balewa Federal Constituency.
Last Friday, he visited President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House alongside the Chairman of the interim Committee of the APC who is also the governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni, a move that confirmed the speculation that he would eventually decamp back to his former political party.
The former Speaker in a letter to Bogoro ‘C’ Ward Chairman of his former party, the PDP, said he left the party due to a breakdown of governance in his state, Bauchi under the administration of Governor Bala Mohammed whom he aligned with in 2019 to win the election.
Dogara had in 2019 ahead of the general elections decamped to the PDP, a move political watchers said was necessitated by the bitter rivalry between the then Speaker and the then Governor of the state, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar. Although in spite his issues with Abubakar, many saw his cross carpeting to the PDP as a foreseen event considering the drama that led to the emergence of the leadership of the eighth National Assembly.
His emergence as the Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2015 was against the wish of his party, the APC that favoured Femi Gbajabiamila as the preferred candidate for the office. He and some other elected Rep. members of the party jettisoned the party’s wishes and eventually teamed up with elected Reps. from the opposition PDP after the opposition party adopted him as its candidate and advised its members to vote for him.
Political watchers believe that his return to the APC is geared towards the 2023 permutation of some interested members of the party eyeing the 2023 presidency. The National Coordinator of Concerned Advocates for Good Governance (CAGG), Olusegun Bamgbose, said Dogara’s return to APC was part of the 2023 political arithmetic and permutations.
He said the former governor of Lagos State and a national leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu may have masterminded the former speaker’s defection to enable him have a popular candidate as his Vice for the 2023 Presidential elections.
“His greatest challenge would be securing a Northerner who is a Christian, as a Vice. Someone who will be generally acceptable to the North, and also one whose political pedigree is intimidating,” he said.
Also, the Chairman of the Board of Trustee of the PDP, Senator Walid Jubril, aligned with the Bamgbose’s notion about 2023. He said in a statement on Monday that Dogara left the PDP because of his underground plans to run for the office of the Vice President in 2023.
Acknowledging that Dogara had issues with the Governor Bala Mohammed, he pointed out that the House of Reps. member did not explore all available dispute resolution mechanisms within the PDP before his defection.
Meanwhile political watchers continue to monitor events as it unfolds ahead of the APC congress that may come up in the end of the year or early next year. The outcome of the congress would shed more light to the direction the party would face in choosing the Presidential candidate and running mate for the 2023 elections.
