By Kolawole Ojebisi
The North-Central All Progressives Congress, APC, Forum has maintained that the position of the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) should be offered to a politician from the geo-political zone, making a case for a former governor of Nasarawa State, Alhaji Tanko Al-Makura.
The Forum stated a number of reasons why Al-Makura deserves to replace Abdullahi Umar Ganduje who recently resigned as the party’s National Chairman.
This is contained in a statement, titled, ‘Why Al-Makura deserves to be APC National Chairman’ which was released in Abuja on Sunday by the Chairman of the Forum, Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga.
Highlighting the reasons for its position one after the other, the Forum stated that Al-Makura is from the North-Central, particularly Nasarawa State, where the removed former national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, hails from.
It also added that the ex-Nasarawa governor qualified to be succeed Ganduje’s considering his membership of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) bloc which is part of the three legacy parties that merged to forma the APC.
According to the Forum, among the three legacy parties, namely the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), that fused to form the ruling party, the CPC bloc is the only one that has not held the APC chairmanship position.
The statement reads in part, “Senator Tanko Al-Makura was a two-term Governor whose clout and experience are pluses and both former and sitting governors will see him as one of their own. He was a former Senator who was seen as part and parcel of legislature. He was among the chairmanship aspirants who accepted without grudges to the consensus option that threw up Abdullahi Adamu as National Chairman during the APC National Convention in 2022.
It further added that Al-Makura “ has discharged critical party assignments in the country that gave him first hand ideas and intrinsic knowledge of the party nationally”.
To buttress its position the Forum cited as part of assignments discharged by Al-Makura to include Ekiti State APC Primary Election Committee that produced former Governor Kayode Fayemi in 2018.
It added, “He is a bridge builder and an advocate of inclusivity as he relates with the disability community that has over 20 million people as he is also a person living with disability,” the Forum added.
The forum further maintained: “After extensive deliberations among stakeholders of the North-Central region, the North-Central APC Forum has decided to endorse Senator Tanko Al-Makura for the position of APC National Chairman. This is is furtherance of our demand that the position of National Chairman should return to the North-Central in line with the zoning arrangement of the APC.”
