Leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) North Central Forum (NCF) have rejected the endorsement of the embattled national chairman of the party, Abdullahi Ganduje by the chairman of the North Central Governors’ Forum and Nasarawa State governor, Abdullahi Sule.
Speaking with newsmen in Jos, the Plateau State capital, the forum’s chairman, Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, said the courtesy visit Governor Sule paid to the party secretariat in Abuja on Friday to pledge his support for Ganduje was for his personal interest and not in the interest of the North Central region, the APC or the President Bola Tinubu-led administration.
He said the governor’s action, at a time when the party’s stakeholders from the region were pushing for the return of the national chairmanship position to the North Central, betrayed the entire region.
Zazzaga, who was also a member of the Presidential Campaign Council in the last election, pointed out that Governor Sule knows well that the national chairmanship position, according to the party arrangement and zoning, ought to be for the North Central after the resignation of Abdullahi Adamu, who is not only from the North Central region but also from Governor Sule’s Nasarawa State.
Zazzaga argued that even the Edo and Ondo State governorship elections, in which Ganduje’s leadership produced the party’s flag bearers, could be another mistake as he lacked the legitimacy to do so.
Also yesterday, a former APC national chairmanship aspirant, Mohammed Etsu, insisted that the stakeholders in the North Central Zone would not waive the quest to retain the position.
In a statement he issued in Minna, the Niger State capital, he said, “The North Central Concerned Stakeholders wish to join issues with the false hope created and illusory promises being made by a member of the party in the zone and peddled as a collective decision of the zone regarding the contestable position of the national chairman of our great party, Dr Umar Ganduje.”
Acknowledging that Governor Sule was reported to have conveyed the zone’s backing to Ganduje, he said while such could be the governor’s position, it does not represent the resolution of stakeholders from the zone.
Etsu said, “I wish to restate again the non-compromising stance of the North Central zone on the zoning arrangement of the last elective convention, where the party’s national chairmanship was zoned to the North Central zone.
“While Governor Sule retains the personal liberty to declare his support for any official of the party, I wish to remind him and other do-gooders who may be in league with him that fraternising with Dr Ganduje, who is effectively usurping the position which rightfully belongs to the North Central is an act of self-sabotage and utter betrayal of collective political future.”
Consequently, he said such a decision directly undermines the zone by settling for nothing and reducing the place of the zone in the political equation of the party that they have worked hard to make popular in the zone.
He advised Ganduje not to be swayed by the smooth talks as the North Central is uncompromising in its insistence on the return of the seat of the national chairman. He, however, reiterated that the demand bears no ill will towards the person of Ganduje but is based on fairness and justice.
Etsu said the party leader, President Bola Tinubu, should take a special interest in the unfolding imbroglio so that it does not snowball into a crisis that has the potential of derailing the party’s goodwill in the North Central.
