Some northern stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have kicked against the consensus option in selecting the party’s presidential candidate, saying it is a mark of ingratitude for some persons to push for the North to retain power.
The APC members under the auspices of Northern Progressive Agenda (NPA) threw their weight of support behind national leader of the APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who they described as one southerner who has done a lot for the North.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja in Friday, the group urged Nigerians to support Tinubu to clinch the APC presidential ticket.
Spokesman of the Northern Progressive Agenda, Dominic Alancha, recalled how Tinubu had consistently offered his platforms to northern presidential aspirants to help them achieve their dreams of ruling the country.
Alanchw said, “When former President Olusegun Obasanjo wanted to put an end to the political career of his vice, who incidentally is the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP today, it was the south that gave him a lifeline by offering him the ticket of the then Action Congress AC to contest for the number one seat in the country.
It was the south who offered the north in the person of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, a presidential ticket, after the failure of the first merger plan between the Congress for Progressives Change CPC and the Action Congress of Nigeria ACN.
“It was the same south, following the merger that produced the All Progressives Congress APC that supported President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner to clinch the ticket, win the presidential election and is now running out his second term.
“While the southern region boasts of many qualified and competent individuals fit for the office of the president, we are calling on the party to particularly narrow its search to the person of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu whose many contributions and sacrifices exemplified in the opportunities given to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Mallam Nuhu, President Muhammadu Buhari and many more have benefited the north more than it has benefited his own region of the south and south west in particular.
“Having enjoyed all these cooperation from the southern region, do we want to prove that we are ungrateful people by refusing to stand by them when it is our turn to do so? The Peoples Democratic Party and by extension her presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has already demonstrated bad faith by ceding the ticket to the north.
“Our political elites in the All Progressives Congress and the north as a whole must not display that sense of ingratitude which is not one of the character trait of an average northerner. The north did it in 1999 by refusing to present any candidate in the two major political parties that contested the presidential election then. Those of us in the APC can do it again in 2023.”
The Northern Progressive Agenda asked President Muhammadu Buhari to reciprocate the gesture of the south which the president is a great beneficiary by ignoring those calling for the North to retain power.
“We also call on the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, political elites from the north, especially the governors and delegates alike to show good faith by ensuring that power shifts to the southern region. We must not allow our greed for power to cause us unwarranted and irredeemable reputational damage in the eyes of other Nigerians”, the stakeholders added.
