The Red Card Movement co-founded by a former presidential candidate of Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has dissociated itself from the endorsement of the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar in the forthcoming presidential elections.
In a statement on Sunday in Abuja by the Co-convener RCM, Michael Ogundana, the group described the purported endorsement of the PDP presidential candidate as a “blatant lie.”
The group said it will maintain the principle of its co-conveners which is to mobilize Nigerians to resoundingly reject the decadent and discredited politics of APC and PDP and the attendant bad governance they have foisted on Nigeria.
The statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to a press conference called by certain former members of the Red Card Movement. These group of individuals made several wild statements purportedly on behalf of the Movement to the effect that the Red Card Movement has dissociated itself from the Convener – Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili and decided to endorse the candidature of Atiku Abubakar of the PDP for the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2019 elections. That is a blatant lie! Nothing could be farther from the truth.
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“The Red Card Movement currently led by its eight out of the previous 10 Co-Conveners wishes to state unequivocally that it has not endorsed and can never endorse any one of the two old order dominant parties of APC and PDP against which it mobilised citizens over a one-year period since being convened January 2018. The political jobbers who are brazenly propagating falsehoods as part of their ignoble venture of seeking to sell out the movement to Atiku Abubakar and the PDP.
“The Red Card Movement maintains the principle of its co-conveners which is to mobilize the Nigerian citizens to resoundingly reject the decadent and discredited politics of APC and PDP and the attendant bad governance they have foisted on Nigeria. Our Movement perceives Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Muhammadu Buhari of the APC as icons of Bad Politics, Bad Leadership and Governance Failure. They both belong among the failed old order political class that we seek to replace with a new Political Order for Nigeria to make meaningful progress.
“Members of the public may recall that the Movement had earlier in 2018, embarked on an exercise to produce a credible candidate from a coalition of alternative political parties to upturn the reign of the dominant twin parties. The process involved multiple stage polling on social media by informed and enlightened Nigerians using the 3Cs – character, competence and capacity criteria for leadership selection adopted by the movement.
“Unfortunately, this process stalled at the second phase, where top candidates that emerged from the various selection mechanisms were required to engage among themselves to identify their consensus person. The RCM is now left with little time to conclude the exercise which now has to be closed. We hereby advise our members and the larger electorate to vote for candidates of their choice using our 3Cs for evaluation and preference.
“The Red Card Movement remains proud of the commitment and efforts of its Conveners to liberate Nigeria from the dark clutches of bad governance that APC and PDP have locked Nigeria into. We are delighted to welcome our co-conveners who have returned to the movement by exercising their right to automatic re-entry. We wish to reassure our members and Nigerians that we remain committed to our vision and mission that we have been known for and will continue the work of enthroning good governance beyond the forthcoming elections.”