Former Jigawa State Governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, has described the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a political platform born out of anger, malice, and bitterness, asserting that it was never a serious party from inception.
Lamido made the remarks in chapter 16, page 421 of his newly launched autobiography.
The former governor, a founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), recounted his dismay when he learned that several of his PDP colleagues had defected to what he referred to as a “contraption” ahead of the 2015 general elections. He said he immediately distanced himself from the decision.
“I once had cause to explain to some members of the public after the APC was formed, that it was created out of anger, malice and hatred,” Lamido wrote. “It was not, and has never been, a serious political party; its proponents were only parochial scavengers, who see politics as a huge enterprise.”
Lamido traced the roots of the APC to what he called a merger of electoral losers from the early years of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. Recalling the 1999 elections, he noted that the PDP, the Alliance for Democracy (AD), and the All Peoples Party (APP) were the three major national parties at the time. The AD and APP had formed an alliance to support Olu Falae against PDP’s Olusegun Obasanjo, who eventually won the presidency.
“The AD/APP alliance later dissolved into the ANPP. But they lost the elections; it was these losers that later came together to establish the APC,” he noted.
Lamido further criticised the APC for, in his view, manipulating historical narratives and promoting what he described as a “so-called ‘Mr. Integrity’” in Muhammadu Buhari, whom he accused of overshadowing other revered Nigerian leaders without merit.
“Before Buhari came into the scene, we had leaders with an established record of integrity and powerful reputation, like Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello, Mallam Aminu Kano, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe and General Murtala Mohammed,” he stated. “Unfortunately, even Buhari himself, with time, came to accept the praises of integrity being showered upon him by his political promoters.”
Lamido said Buhari had failed to publicly acknowledge the legacy of figures such as Murtala Mohammed or Aminu Kano during his political engagements, particularly in regions like Kano, where those figures remain revered.
He also disclosed that he was repeatedly approached by promoters of the APC during the height of PDP’s internal crisis, but turned down the invitations. According to him, the principled path was to remain within the PDP and work toward resolving its internal issues rather than defecting.
