A foremost Nigerian youth leader and aviation expert, Comrade Isaac Balami, has formally dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Labour Party (LP) ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Balami, who played a prominent role in the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 when he mobilized northern youths across the region, disclosed this on Tuesday in a statement titled, “My Critical Junction”.
He said he was dumping APC and joining the Obi-Datti movement because he shares in the pains of Nigerians, especially the Christians “over the inequality and injustice they have witnessed under the APC-led government”.
Balami described the APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket as one of the major reasons he decided to dump the party, adding, “Looking back, Northern Muslims in Nigeria have for the past 24 years enjoyed and benefited hugely from the two highest positions being either the President or the Vice President, with the full support of Northern Christians.
“It is, therefore, unreasonable and unjust that when an opportunity for a Northern Christian to be given a chance, presented itself in the form of a running mate to the APC flag bearer, such a rare opportunity to reciprocate and heal open wounds, was missed in favor of disregard for the regional and nationwide unity we have continued to preach and demonstrate in our ways. To reconfirm my sanity, I had to evaluate to see if there was a qualified, fit and suitable Northern Christian with the right political carriage and gravitas to assume the position of the Vice Presidential Candidate for the APC or not and of course, there are far more than one could imagine.”
He continued: “But There comes a junction, … a critical Junction, in the life of everyone when the sternest of decisions become unavoidably compelling and incontrovertible! This is the point in time when men choose the critical right and stick to it no matter the cost.
“As a foremost youth, a leading light amongst my peers, and a significant actor in one of Nigeria’s most respectable industries and economic sectors, I have to this day exhibited the highest and most profound regard for the careful balance by which our society has operated.
“I am full of respect for our founding fathers and the national establishment of this country that they have so painstakingly engineered over the decades: I grew up embracing the singular maxim: Nigeria’s UNITY is non-negotiable! I found solace in this saying so much that, as I yearned to contribute my meager quota to national development, I would remain on solid grounds and weather every storm and tide of change in the most humane and understandable ways.”
Reflecting on his roles and contributions to the APC, Balami said that at that party’s most critical junction in the 2019 political dispensation, he alongside his team mobilized a gathering of about 3000 high-ranking Christian clergy to lend support to the President Muhammadu Buhari course and quest for the highest office in the land.
He said: “My role and part in the APC – the ALL PROGRESSIVE CONGRESS was a remarkable and praise-worthy one. At that party’s most critical junction in the 2019 political dispensation, my team and I mobilized a gathering of about 3000 high-ranking Christian clergies to lend support to the President Muhammadu Buhari course and quest for the highest office in the land. This feat was achieved in defiance of strong warnings from certain notable elders. Seeing however that the handwriting was already clear on the wall, I turned a deaf ear and went ahead to mobilize such resounding impactful Christian support in favor of President Buhari and the APC.”
The youth leader said that the unraveling of the last seven years of the APC-led Federal Government and the consequence of those years on his life as well as the lives of every Nigerian has become a testament to the saying, “What the elders can see sitting down, the child would be unable to see even if he were on top a tall tree!”
According to him, “To date, there is no longer any promise the APC Government has made to anyone in Nigeria, including its members that it has fulfilled: everyone has become a victim of unethical failures and every other immorality and godlessness of the APC and its Government.”
Balami, consequently, declared that he has sacrificed his entire investment by selling his aircraft hanger in order to join in rescuing Nigeria.
“Furthermore, to contribute to confronting the leadership challenges we face as a country as my commitment to save our fatherland, I have decided to sacrifice my entire investment and life’s work, to join the teeming Nigerian youths and indeed all Nigerians yearning for good governance. I have sold my majority stake in my aircraft hangar as well as my airline, to join my fellow Nigerians in the Obidient movement, just so I can more dedicatedly fight this struggle to rescue the soul of this great nation. This is my sacrifice! What is yours?” he said.
Balami is a former National President of Arewa Consultative Forum, Youths Congress, ex-National Spokesperson for the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, and the immediate past National President of the Aircraft Pilots and Engineers of Nigeria.
