2023 presidency: Disregard purported zoning to south, Adamu as chairman – APC Group tells members

The All Progressive Congress Mandate Group (APC-MG), has urged party members and general public to disregard any rumour that the 2023 presidency may have been zoned to the southern region of the country.

This was, even as, the group also said the party never met to tip Senator Abdullahi Adamu as a consensus candidate for national chairmanship ahead of the March 26 national convention.

Alhaji Sani Abdullahi, National Chairman of the group, which is made up of eminent party members, in a statement on Thursday, warned against few individuals arrogating powers to themselves by trying to decide the fate of the ruling party, without recourse to the teeming party members across the country.

“The APC-MG noted with dismay, the purported endorsement of a former governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Adamu, as the national chairman of APC and the reported zoning of the party’s presidential ticket for the 2023 General Election to to the South of the country.

“The APC Mandate Group has consequently directed the party members and Nigerians in general to disregard purported endorsement of Adamu as chairman and the zoning of APC presidential ticket”, the statement said.

APC-MG described those promoting the twin-stories of the endorsement and zoning in the media as “purveyors of fake news and merchants of lies”.

It stressed that, “the decision on the APC presidential flagbearer is something beyond Nasiru El- Rufai or Kayode Fayemi or Mohammed Badaru, who are only entitled to one vote each when it is time for elections”.

It pointed out that, “the party members would not have at any time treated Adamu as a top contender for its national leadership when he woefully failed to unite the party when he had the simple task of the Chairman of APC Reconciliation Committee”.

The Group said its assertion is based on verifiable facts that the APC did not at any time meet to take these decisions. It clarified that a group of people meeting as a “cabal” do not constitute the APC, which is founded on a recognized constitution with known organs that have responsibility for decisions at various stages.

It stated that the few members of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) that have been presenting their desire as mainstream decision of the APC have to awake to the reality that they have no right to decide for the rest of the party, since the PGF is not an organ created by the APC Constitution “and is not also the National Working Committee of the party to arrogate such powers to itself”.

“APC-MG is challenging the PGF to publish adopted minutes of any APC meeting where it was agreed that the presidency should be zoned to any region of the country as they are now championing”, while stating that “illegal agreements reached in covens cannot be allowed to supplant the democratic process that will take place at an elective party convention”.

According to the group, the system of endorsement and zoning being championed by the PGF is contrived to deny Nigerians of quality leadership and that it was evident the “cartel of state governors” are working towards personalizing Nigeria for their own selfish gains, which well-meaning Nigerians should do well to stand against at this point.

The Group warned that no one should take the party and its members for granted since the ultimate power belongs to the people and not a handful of overbearing state governors, while hinting that those attempting to hijack party would have to live with the reality of a deserted APC, should they provoke the larger population of the party to defect to a new platform.

It called on Nigerians to take interest in what is going on in the APC, “since these same governors through their proxies are linked to the process of who becomes the presidential candidate of the People Democratic Party (PDP), which would effectively see them imposing either of two candidates on Nigerians as the next president when the people, through party primaries and general elections, should be the ones to make such calls”.