Barely five hours after former Vice President Atiku Abubakar led other opposition figures like Malam Nasir El-Rufai, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal and others on a visit to former president Muhammadu Buhari at his Kaduna residence, the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, also visited Buhari’s house with other party leaders on Sallah homage.
The APC national chairman while fielding questions from journalists after the Friday night meeting with Buhari reacted to the earlier visit of Atiku and others, describing them as strange-bird fellows who cannot fuse together.
Ganduje said the APC was comfortable and would win not only the presidential election but more governorship seats in the 2027 elections.
“We are here to pay Sallah homage to the former president and we took time to explain to him the achievements of our great party as he left it because we promised to be briefing him from time to time.
“Concerning the group that came to see him, that is not our business. But, I must tell them that history is about to repeat itself; they have a joint venture which will not work. This is because they are just some kind of particles that cannot come together.
“Well, it’s a game, but we will not reveal our own intrigues and game plan, but I can tell you we are equal to the task.
“The progress President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has made is very encouraging and that has made our party much stronger. I can tell you that, though we have 21 APC states now, we are eyeing some more states to come to our fold, either the governors themselves will come or we go into election and we defeat them.
“So, we are comfortable ahead of 2027, but we are not resting on our oars, because it’s politics and we are used to the game,” he said.
Reacting to the insinuations that Tinubu was engaging in skewed appointments, the APC national chairman dismissed the claims, saying the party was working on the statistics of appointments done by Tinubu to clear the air on the allegation.
“We are coming up with the true figures of the appointments to show Nigerians that Mr President is not engaged in skewed appointments,” he said.
Earlier in his presentation to the former president on the state of the APC, Ganduje said the party had introduced a new people-centred approach to campaign administration different from the usual practice of inaugurating national campaign governorship councils for states in Abuja, adding that the campaign councils were inaugurated in the affected states to allow more and greater participation by party members and other stakeholders in their respective states.
“This innovation has helped to engage the right people to organise and manage campaigns in their states for effective delivery before and during the election. Your Excellency, as you must be aware, we won governorship elections in Imo, Kogi, Edo and Ondo, but unfortunately lost in Bayelsa State.
“Your Excellency, our focus is now on Anambra and Osun states. And in compliance with the time-table released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the party successfully conducted primary elections in Anambra on April 5th, 2025.”
While assuring the former president that the APC had been growing from strength to strength, Ganduje said, “Today, we have in our fold the former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim, former Labour Party governorship candidate in Ebonyi state, Edwin Nkwegu, Senator Obinna Ogba, Senator Uche Ekwunife from Anambra State and thousands of their supporters.
“Others decampees are, former Ondo State governor, Olusegun Mimiko; former Kaduna State governor, Ramalan Yero; former Edo State Deputy Governor, Phillips Shuaibu; two-term Senator representing Edo South and former Clerk of the National Assembly, Senator Matthew Onoghide and Senator Halliru Dauda Jika.
“Your Excellency, in the same vein, the NPP also lost some of its former National Working Committee members to APC, such as Prof. Rufai Alkali, former National Chairman, who led other prominent leaders and members, including Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, former National Organising Secretary; Prof. Bem Angwe, former National Legal Adviser; Dr. Isa Shika, Chairman and the immediate past Secretary, North West; Mikaih Takwat, Kaduna senatorial candidate, and thousands of their supporters to join us. Other notable decampees are Senator Shehu Sani, who represented Kaduna Central in the Senate and Hon. Yusuf Shittu Galambi, the only NNPP member of the House of Representatives, Gwaram Federal Constituency in Jigawa state. Most recently, Senator Ned Nwoko representing Delta North also joined us,” he said.
Speaking on the recent stand declared by former President Buhari that he remains a loyal member of the APC, the National Chairman applauded Buhari and assured him of the party’s resolve to continue to associate with him, consult him and seek his wise counsel in running the affairs of the Party.
According to Ganduje, “On this note, I will like to specifically acknowledge and applaud the consistent and continued support of the former President to the Party. Of recent, the former President has publicly maintained and associated himself with the Party by stating in clear and unequivocal terms that he “remains an APC member, and would like to be addressed as such”. This is a clear indication of a committed and true Party member and leader.
“I would therefore like to assure that the Party values Your Excellency and will not only continue to associate with you, but will always consult and seek your wise counsel in running the affairs of the Party. We are indeed happy with the way and manner in which you led the Party to victory during the 2023 General Elections. This will go down in the history of democracy in this country.
“We are also happy with the cordial relationship that exists between you and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is working hard to build on some of your legacies and add value to the lives of Nigerians.
“Therefore, on behalf of the National Working Committee, I would like to most sincerely thank you for granting us this audience, and assure you that we will continue our efforts in initiating policies and programmes that will assist the government in its determination to address the global economic challenges. And we hope that you will always open your doors to us, whenever we knock in search of wise counsel,” Ganduje said.
