From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The endorsement of former governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, as national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has continued to generate bad blood among party stakeholders in the North Central.
Last week, both elders and youth stakeholders from the zone had courageously endorsed Ganduje, describing him as the best man for the job. The APC North Central Progressives Forum (ANCPF) did not only frown at the endorsement, it also petitioned President Bola Tinubu to stop the plot to shortchange the interests of the zone.
“It’s deep surprise and disappointment to see how some stakeholders from North Central are busy endorsing or celebrating the unjustifiable deliberate plan to shortchange and undermine the interests of the North Central zone of APC and the zone at large. After all the collective efforts made by the zone to help the party win elections three consecutive times by constantly giving votes of 2,411,013 (53 per cent) in 2015; 2,465,599 (54 per cent) in 2019 and 1,760,993 in 2023, despite the heterogeneous nature of the zone due to tribes, ethnicities and religions, constant shortchanging has been the thank you gift to the zone for being faithful and supportive to the party.
“We wish to remind you, Sir, that in this 2023 election, North Central’s votes was higher than the votes of 1,185,458 from North East, 799,957 from South South and 127,605 from the South East zones of the country.
“If this injustice of short-changing is allowed to continue, it will be a total disregard and betrayal of our collective sacrifices, support and loyalty as a zone, which we have played in the last eight years and wish to continue playing to the party and the government,” the stakeholders reflected in the petition,” the forum lamented in a petition by its convener, Ahmed Suleiman.
“We, therefore, call on the President Tinubu who has tasted the bitterness of injustice, the joy and benefits of fairness and justice in his political history to please help to put a stop to this dangerous political misrepresentation and avoid any unforeseen crisis in the party.
“Politics is about the people’s feelings, values, interests and sense of belonging, and should not be allowed to be toyed with by any self-driven interests. Worthy to recall, is the zone’s recent shortchanging in the National Assembly leadership, security high-ranking, despite the security challenges bedeviling the zone, and now the leadership of the party is to be taken from the zone which was used to deny us all the aforementioned positions.
“The painful part of all the above-mentioned is that, this constant undermining is done without any consultation with the stakeholders of the party from the zone, and if their is any, the people deserved to know, all these deliberate attempts to relegate the zone politically, forced one to ask, what is the offence of the North Central zone of APC?” ANCPF asked.
Rejecting the plot further, the stakeholders wrote; “It is important to remind us that both the Chairman who is from Nasarawa state and the Secretary who is from Osun state resigned the same day, now the Secretary is to be replaced from the same state and zone, but Nasarawa or any other state from North Central does not qualify to retain the chairmanship position, what an injustice! What an orphan!! What a robbery!!!”
“As a Forum drawn from the Six states of North Central and the FCT, we therefore, call on all well-meaning Nigerians who are lovers of justice and fairness, irrespective of political interests or affiliation, to join hands with us to stop this injustice against the entire North Central.
“And for those who are busy endorsing this injustice to our collective sense of belonging and interests, please permit us to speak to your conscience, that you should remember the injustice you are supporting and celebrating today because of any self-serving interest may come after you or your zone somehow someday,” the forum appealed.