APC chairmanship tussle: Group warns northwest governors against namedropping Buhari, calls for election

The ‘Concerned APC North-West Stakeholders’, has cautioned some members of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), particularly those from the north-west of the country, to thread with caution so as not to destroy the All Progressive Congress (APC), saying there would be consequences for any act that causes problems for the party.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the group said the warning became necessary following the gloating of the north west governors after they name-dropped President Muhammadu Buhari in their bid to tap the head of the party’s Reconciliation Committee, Senator Abdullahi Adamu as a consensus national chairman.

National Convener of the group, Alhaji Sani Abubakar, who signed the statement, expressed regret that dropping Mr. President’s name to promote one candidate over the others for the chairmanship position of the party is against the popular clamour by well-meaning party members for the next APC chairman to be from the north-west.

The statement disclosed that, “the stakeholders have become aware that members of the PGF from the north-west who championed this errant position are acting out their own greed and personal agenda, which is that each of them is hopeful of emerging the running mate to an eventual APC presidential candidate from the south”.

According to the group, “it is most unfortunate that people who currently (individually) hold the mandate for the wellbeing of millions of people as state governors are unable to subjugate their selfish interest for national interest, party loyalty and the long-term stability of Nigeria’s democracy. It is tragic how these individuals overheated the polity simply out of desperation to occupy a position that is not zoned to their areas”.

The group emphatically reminds “these persons from the north-west looking for the position of vice president that, going by our history as a nation it is well known that the best the region could get after 2023 is the National Chairmanship position of the party”.

“All those pushing for a candidate from the north-central to be made a consensus chairman of the party, which has earlier been zoned to the north-west, are traitors and seem to only be interested in rubbishing Mr. President’s legacies in office by appending his name as mark of approval to their plans”, the statement stressed.

The Group added that, it would insist on the National Convention being elective in the true sense so that delegates can carry out the wishes of party members by electing the national chairman in accordance with the agreed zoning arrangement.

It warned the PGF to retrace its steps, stop dropping President Buhari’s name, and dare to test the popularity of their preferred candidate through the ballot at the National Convention, adding that, “the era when people prance all over the political space in borrowed robes is long past and there is nothing the PGF can do to bring such back”.

The Stakeholders further urged APC members to prepare for the battle to save the party from “political vampires” on the day of the National Convention by impressing on their delegates the need to organically elect its next chairman with limited influence of state governors.