Former high commissioner to the UK Dr Dalhatu Tafida resigns from PDP

FORMER Nigerian high commissioner to the UK Dr Dalhatu Tafida has resigned his membership of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) pointing out that it is now governed by impunity and wracked with confusion.

 

Dr Tafida, who served as high commissioner for seven and a half years between 2008 and 2015, was a founding member of the PDP and served as its majority leader in the senate. Elected to represent Kaduna North Senatorial District between 1999 and 2007, Dr Tafida also served as Nigeria's health commissioner between 1993 and 1995.

 

Fondly known as Baba Tafida by the UK diaspora, Dr Tafida had the arrival hall in the London high commission named after him when he left office.  A close associate of former president Dr Goodluck Jonathan, Dr Tafida managed his election campaign in the 2011 presidential elections.

 

Yesterday, Dr Tafida said that for the PDP, the market had ended and it was time for every responsible man to go home. Speaking on a BBC Hausa Service interview, Dr Tafida, who has maintained a low profile since being recalled from his position late last year, recalled with nostalgia, the good fortunes of the PDP in the past and lamented the reign of impunity and confusion, which had taken over the party.

 

Dr Tafida said: “I have decided to leave PDP and I will not join another party. I left because there is no focus and if a market is over, a responsible man should go home and now the market is over.

 

"It was good in the past but now it is the worst, with impunity and confusion. The party has been destroyed and reduced to nothing and I have decided to dump the party as I don’t think our stay in the party is wise because the people now abuse everyone and no one will even listen to you.”

 

He added that his decision to leave the party was because it had been reduced to nothing. Dr Tafida regretted the negativity surrounding the PDP and cited a lack of willingness by its leaders to listen to its founding members.

 

Making it clear that he would not join another party, Dr Tafida said he will continue to serve the country in other ways. Dr Tafida, 75, was once the personal physician to former president Shehu Shagari and in the 1992 presidential primaries for the National Republican Convention, he defeated former military ruler General Yakubu Gowon in the Zaria ward under the Option A4 system.