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The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Ganduje, has said that the leadership of the party will come out with a blueprint to increase the membership of the party.
Ganduje disclosed this Wednesday after a closed-door meeting with the immediate past Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong.
He added that the visit of the immediate past Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike to his residence on Monday in Abuja was not about his rumoured defection to the ruling party.
The chairman, however, admitted that the defection of a politician like Wike to the ruling party would Excellerate the chances of the party in 2027.
According to him, “It will certainly Excellerate the chances of our party, especially in 2027.
Ganduje stated: “You know Wike is a honourable minister-designate, so he came, we discussed because I was looking for him to congratulate him for that and also he came to congratulate me and we discussed that when he becomes minister fully, he will work very hard in order to move the ministry he is given and he is ready to cooperate.
“But we didn’t discuss the issue of his coming to APC or not coming to APC. That issue will arise later.
“And not only that we are coming out with a new blueprint to increase the followership of the party and this includes all strata of officials; those who are in APC and those who are in other political parties.
“I assure you, very soon some of the political parties will even merge with the APC. We are doing that underground.”
Earlier, Lalong said he was at the party’s secretariat to congratulate Ganduje and see how to support him in running the party.
He said, “As the national chairman, Ganduje was governor, as a matter of fact, when we look at his antecedents, we always say he is the longest experienced politician that we have within us. Because he is somebody who was very long in the civil service, he became permanent secretary, commissioner, longest serving deputy governor and became governor. So with this kind of experience, what else do you need in party matters.”
Abdullahi Ganduje, the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), says the Party’s leadership will come up with a blueprint to increase its membership.
The former Kano Governor made the disclosure after a closed-door meeting the immediate past Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong no Wednesday.
According to him, the visit of the immediate past Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike to his residence on Monday in Abuja was not about his defection to the ruling party as rumoured.
The Chairman however affirmed that the defection of the Peoples Democratic Party chieftain to the Party would Excellerate the chances of APC in 2027.
His words: “It will certainly Excellerate the chances of our party, especially in 2027.
“You know Wike is a honourable minister-designate, so he came, we discussed because I was looking for him to congratulate him for that and also he came to congratulate me and we discussed that when he becomes minister fully, he will work very hard in order to move the ministry he is giving and he is ready to cooperate.
READ ALSO: “Tinubu Must Not Be Distracted From Nigerians Welfare” – Reno Omokri
“But we didn’t discuss the issue of his coming to APC or not coming to APC. That issue will arise later.
“And not only that we are coming out with a new blueprint to increase the followership of the party and this includes all strata of officials; those who are in APC and those who are in other political parties.
“I assure you, very soon some of the political parties will even merge with the APC. We are doing that underground.”
Lalong on his part said he was at the Party’s secretariat to congratulate Ganduje and see how to support him in running the party.
He said, “As the national chairman, Ganduje was governor, as a matter of fact, when we look at his antecedents, we always say he is the longest experienced politician that we have within us. Because he is somebody who was very long in the civil service, he became permanent secretary, commissioner, longest serving deputy governor and became governor. So with this kind of experience, what else do you need in party matters.”
Muhammad Garba argues that Abdullahi Ganduje has what it takes for the position
The recent development in the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) is giving food for thought for stakeholders in the party and Nigerians in general. There have been resignations of members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.
The resignation of the National Chairman of the party and former Nasarawa State governor, Senator Abdullahi Adamu was followed by the National Secretary, Iyiola Omisore. The National Vice Chairman, North West of the party, Dr. Salihu Lukman also followed suit. Earlier, another vacuum was created following the death of Hon. Friday Nwosu, the party’s National Welfare Officer.
Also, following Adamu’s resignation, the party’s Deputy National Chairman, Senator Abubakar Kyari, whose name was submitted to the Senate as ministerial nominee, is preparing to resign from the NWC after chairing the National Executive Committee meeting.
With the vacuum created stakeholders of the party are now busy scouting for their replacements including that of the National Chairman. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu felt, from all indication, that he has no other confidant he would like to emerge as the next chairman of the party other than his close ally and the immediate past governor of Kano State, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje. Before this development Ganduje was among the President’s nominees for appointment as minister.
However, just as stakeholders in the party are accepting the proposal with an open hand, the National Vice Chairman, North-west, of the APC, Dr. Salihu Lukman, was all over the media, assuming the position of a spokesperson for the North Central geo-political zone. He opined that the chairmanship of the party should be zoned to the same North Central where Senator Adamu hailed.
From the beginning, I felt that Lukman was genuinely having the interest of North Central at heart. However, events have since proved otherwise. After writing series of open letters, first to the Progressive Governors Forum, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and members of the National Working Committee, among others, Dr. Lukman unceremoniously announced his resignation from membership of the National Working Committee of the party in a letter dated July 26, 2023, and addressed to the Acting National Chairman of the party, Senator Abubakar Kyari, now a ministerial nominee.
One of the major reasons Lukman gave as his reason for relinquishing his position was his strong reservation that the APC governors, President Tinubu and virtually most of the stakeholders were solidly behind Ganduje’s emergence as the party’s next chairman. Unfortunately he did not only oppose the emergence of Ganduje as the party’s helmsman, but also engaged in some unpleasant media activities.
As a self-acclaimed activist, I have never expected that Lukman would give up so easily, because activists are known for their doggedness and steadfastness while pursuing what they think is right. If I were him, I would have remained in the party and see what happens next so that I can be part of those to ensure that things he claimed are wrong in the party are made right.
I also believe that his remaining in the NWC would also give Lukman the opportunity to fully understand who is Dr. Ganduje.
I firmly believe that he (Lukman) would come around to see how Ganduje will use his knowledge, vast experience, maturity and exposure to ensure that the APC breath a new lease of life.
Those of us who have worked with Dr. Ganduje for decades can attest to the fact that despite all efforts to dent his image, particularly the opposition in Kano, he has remained one of the very few politicians in Nigeria one can count on. A grassroots politician, a two-term deputy governor and two-term governor with vast experience in party politics, I don’t think Dr Lukman has any reason to launch an untoward campaign against the former governor. In all his media engagements after his resignation, he could not give any acceptable reasons for his opposition to Ganduje’s emergence as APC chairman.
It is common knowledge that even the purported dollar video with which his detractors wanted to hang him was merely political. It was a creation of his enemies to frustrate his chances then to emerge as APC gubernatorial candidate in the 2019 election.
Even though the matter has been before the courts of law, they continue to use it to block any chances of getting appointment in the Tinubu administration. Lukman ought to understand that Ganduje remains innocent unless proven otherwise.
As a party man, one of the key determining factors in politics is loyalty, ability and capacity. Ganduje has all along been one of the most loyal members of the party since its formation.
Not only that, Tinubu has his support right from the time he signaled his intention to contest for the most exalted office in the land. At that time, only a handful of people were bold enough to identify with him because of fear from the centre. Ganduje suffered the consequences for that singular action.
Another albatross to Lukman’s zoning proposal to the North Central is the ever- increasing endorsement from members of the party, including its elders and stakeholders which proved the acceptability of Ganduje to emerge as the APC national chairman. As a true politician, Ganduje has been reaching out to all relevant stakeholders in the party to have their support and share their experiences, including the immediate past national chairman of the party. His belief has always been that internal democracy, wide consultation as well as making the party functional throughout the year would always be his focus.
Garba is the immediate past commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs, Kano State
The Oyo State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Isaac Omodewu, says the call for the dissolution of the state executive committee is a mere wishful thinking by some political players.
Omodewu, in a statement on Saturday in Ibadan, was reacting to a comment allegedly credited to a former federal lawmaker, Senator Ayoade Adeseun, during the weekend.
Adeseun had said there were plans to replace the current executive committee of APC in Oyo State with an Interim committee
The move, he had said, would serve as a prelude to the repositioning of the APC in the state.
Omodewu said it was regrettable that Adeseun threw caution to the wind while making the comments.
He pointed out that the former federal lawmaker was not an APC member at the moment as he worked assiduously for his party (Accord Party) during the recently-concluded general elections.
“We can recall that Sen. Adeseun emboldened others to reject all efforts made to let them remain in the APC following their disappointment at the end of the party primaries conducted to pick candidates for the 2023 general elections.
“The current APC executive committee is a product of a legitimate congress and there is no place for fiat in our democracy that would empower an individual to order the dissolution of party executive committees.
“As far as we are concerned, we have our eyes on the ball and we will not leave any stone unturned to ensure that all aggrieved members who left our party in 2022 and new members from other political parties are attracted to Oyo State APC,” Omodewu said.
He added that their efforts had yielded positive results so far.
“Recently we received the 2023 gubernatorial candidate of Labour Party, Mr. Tawfiq Akinwale, and that of Action Peoples Party, Mr. Kazeem Ayandoye, as well as their numerous supporters into the APC while many of those who left in 2022 have also returned,” Omodewu stated.
NAN
…Says with Ganduje as chairman, party lacks rectitude to fight corruption
From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon Yekini Nabena, has expressed disappointment over the calibre of ministers President Bola Tinubu assembled, the shameful state of the ruling party becoming a rehabilitation camp for corrupt politicians, and how the performance of former President Muhammadu Buhari has vindicated his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan.
He also assessed the future and fortune of the ruling party under the leadership of former governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, and challenged the authorities concerned to tell Nigerians who is taking charge of the 450,000 barrels of crude oil allocated to the three moribund refineries originally meant to cater for the landing cost of imported refined petroleum products. He spoke in an interview with Sunday Sun.
What do you think of the calibre of ministers President Tinubu has assembled?
I want to put on record that I am still a member of APC till tomorrow, but as a member of the party, I will tell you that I am disappointed with the calibre of persons President Tinubu assembled. President Tinubu has always boasted about the quality of persons he assembled as the governor of Lagos State. And you can truly see how they have been nurtured to become influential leaders. But as far as the capacity of the people he assembled as ministers are concerned, he got it completely wrong. Yes, I know he has no choice because he cannot wish them away since they worked for his victory in their various states, especially the governors. The fact that politics has become the only business they know how to do, he cannot shut them out because they want to perpetually be in the corridors of power. I have always said that Lagos State cannot be the same as the whole country because some of his political allies are equally powerful persons in their states. At the national level, there are desperate politicians that don’t want to leave the corridors of power. What I thought Asiwaju would have done was to massage their influence by telling them to nominate persons that can do the work as compensation to them for what they did to ensure he won the election. It is disappointing seeing him nominate mostly past governors. People are angry that he went for former governors. Some of them are governors that failed in their states. Almost 90 per cent of the governors Tinubu appointed minister failed their people in the state. They have nothing to offer at the federal level. What will even anger Nigerians more is that these failed governors are coming with the same crop of persons they worked with in their states to the national level. I have the feeling that the circle of failure will continue at the federal level because the governors are coming with the same mentality of doing things. Another fear is that they are coming with the same in-charge mentality and if they don’t strike a balance, there will be a conflict of interest very soon. It is certainly going to take some time for those governors that were hitherto lords in their states to adjust from being the king of the jungle in their states to the reality that they will be taking orders from a superior authority now. Most of them are supposed to be in jail, but they have been appointed ministers. How do you justify that? Many of them did not give an account of the funds given to them as governors. Most of the former governors appointed ministers are supposed to be in jail. They cannot even show what they used the funds given to them to do as state governors. Many of them, especially from the northern part of the country collected money from the CBN as agricultural loans to subsidise fertilizer and other farming implements, but they have nothing to show for the loans because they did not give to the farmers that the money was originally meant for. They gave all manners of flimsy excuses including the one that flood ravaged the farms. Yet, these are the same crop of party leaders that President Tinubu has assembled as his ministers. My concern is that I don’t even know the magic Tinubu will perform with these sets of human beings. Yes, Asiwaju has shown that he is ready to work, but how is he going to perform with people that are an authority unto themselves as former executive officers in the states they are coming from? Will they be loyal to him or will they start to hatch plan B to run down the government? If he had brought fresh people be sure they will give him their maximum best, but not these old brigades that will come with the same set of people, including the contractors they used as governors. So, we should not expect the best brain to do the work. Asiwaju has confirmed that politicians are recycled products by giving Nigerians a set of bad politicians that did not mean well for their states. We need fresh people that will help the president not destroyers like the crop of people he has assembled. Mr President thinks he is doing them a favour by helping him to win his election, but they will be the ones to destroy him. Since they don’t want to leave the corridors of power, they will soon start plotting the next political move. Some of them will be so aggrieved with the release of the portfolios for the ministers. They will feel short-changed, yet they will not step aside, but will remain inside to foment trouble and frustrate the government.
Did the dropping of the three ministerial nominees come to you as a surprise?
I blame the presidency because before nominating them, they would have done due diligence. As a new government, we expect that whoever is in charge should have done better than this. Whether they hinged the reason for their dropping on security or whatever report, what it means is a failure on the part of the government just as we have seen lapses in many other things they have done so far. It was a very wrong signal they have sent to show that nobody is in charge, or that there is no think-tank in the present administration. They would have done background checks, but the situation has given out them that the president did not put a final touch into many things. He may not be in charge. It is even more worrisome, practicing a report where Umar Ganduje was claiming that he removed and replaced the nominees from Kano. How can he wield such powers if we actually have a government working very well? Mr President must wake up, take charge of his government and know the kind of people he will work with. He is already dining with devils in the former governors he nominated. I don’t know the kind of long spoon he is going to use to dine with them because they will soon form another cabal against him. The most painful thing is that we have all the time for due diligence. When he promised Nigerians to roll out his ministers two weeks after his inauguration, we thought that he was very ready, but they took several weeks and even surprised many Nigerians when we saw lapses and the calibre of persons nominated.
Why is your party always going through one leadership crisis after another?
I have said it previously that the foundation APC built in the last elective convention was fundamentally very faulty. The whole national officers were appointed not elected. There was no election, but selection and PDP members that are in their houses, unprepared and not ready for the positions were appointed. The problem started with the removal of Adams Oshiomhole by some governors through his ward and even went to procure court judgment against him, and ever since then, nothing has actually worked. Yes, we are really concerned about the leadership crisis. Oshiomhole came and left, Mai Mala Buni, there was even a period the former governor of Niger State took charge. Some strong forces brought in Abdullahi Adamu from nowhere and were disappointed when they did not get the ticket. They went for Ganduje, a man facing a crisis in Kano, but what is he going to tell the opposition? He is somebody we know his antecedent in Kano. With Ganduje on the saddle as APC chairman, can the party boldly claim to be sincere in fighting corruption? APC has become a party for all manners of people facing one corruption charge or the other. According to Oshiomhole, it has become a rehabilitation home for fraudulent, corrupt politicians facing corruption charges. Adamu Abdullahi was facing a corruption charge before his appointment. It is becoming obvious that the EFCC is no longer working because being an APC chairman does not give the person immunity for trial. Corruption cases against any chairman must continue. People must finish their corruption cases before we consider them for appointment. The party agreed to refund the money of those that bought forms for the leadership position, but the Adamu-led leadership refused. Nobody is talking about the financial recklessness under his administration. Nobody rendered an account of how they expended the over N30 billion generated through the sale of nomination forms. Why should they leave other members of the NWC or do they want to claim that only the ones that left the party handled the expenses? I commend Salihu Lukman for being a strong man. He was talking from outside and maintained his stand as a member of the party’s leadership. As a man of integrity, he stepped aside when he could not change the system.
Do you also think that Ganduje will go down like other APC chairmen?
It is a case of either he goes down or the party will go down. One of these will happen very soon, especially when he tries to resist those that appointed him. That is where the crisis will start. He will be answerable to the few that installed him. Very soon he will soon want to annex areas that do not concern him and the crisis which will ensue will engulf him. Go and mark it, there is certainly going to be an implosion in the APC and it is inevitable because the right things are not done. They said that Ganduje was elected unopposed and I ask how? They should not tell us he is elected because it is not true. Did he buy form, which convention, and who elected him? He should stop parading himself as an elected chairman because he is not one; he is only operating in the capacity of acting chairman. The party’s constitution is very clear
Are you aware that Nigerians are angry with your party, the APC, because of the pains they are going through?
I also feel the pain as a Nigerian too. Forget the fact that I am an APC member. Let me tell you that there is nobody that is not feeling the pain of what we are going through. As an accountant, I don’t know the accounting system and formula Tinubu will apply to solve this economic problem. I can tell you that the rich are even the ones feeling the pain more than the poor because many of them are training their children abroad, mostly in London. They face difficulties changing the naira to pounds. Since Tinubu took over, I have not made a dime as income. It is my farm that has been sustaining me. Most big men with long convoys have all reduced them. Everybody is calculating now because foodstuff and other items have all shot up. The two powerful means of life, petroleum, and foreign currency are out of reach of many now. All these things are happening because we are not telling ourselves the truth and the truth is that there is no subsidy anywhere. It is just a cartel feeding fat on the country. There are 450,000 barrels of crude oil allocated to the Nigeria refineries every day, and since the three refineries in Kaduna, Warri, and Port Harcourt are not working, the questions we must ask should be who is selling the products, who is taking custody of the money and where are they remitting it to? The proceeds from the sale of that product are meant to augment the subsidy by way of taking care of the landing cost of the refined products. I can engage the NNPCL boss in a debate to prove that there is no subsidy payment anywhere. If we have a serious government, somebody should have been arrested by now. There is a whole lot of deception about a commissioned refinery. That is the refinery they have planned to sell crude oil to and buy refined products to stock for sale to Nigerians. The refinery will operate like cement only involved in re-bagging the product. Forget the whole noise about his cement industries. How do you justify the fact that the same owner of the refinery also has a license to import fuel at the same time? The whole problem of the dollar crisis in the country revolves around the foreign currency deployed into the refinery. There is no plan to put our three refineries into use. They are probing former CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, but let them have the courage to tell us the beneficiaries of the missing dollars and just like the Dasukigate during Goodluck Jonathan era when some people were named as beneficiaries, they should be bold enough to release the names of those involved in dollar racketeering with Emefiele.
What will you tell Tinubu if you meet him one on one?
I will tell him to resist the temptation of concentrating on the second term and focus on landmark legacy projects. If he does well, Nigerians will voluntarily vote for him. Many APC governors lost their states and even senatorial tickets because they did not perform well. I will tell him that he has already started wrongly by bringing the past governors as ministers that may fail the country as they failed the people of their states. And if he is thinking they can deliver him in 2027, he has got it all wrong. I will tell him not to dissipate energy complaining about past administration because it is assumed that he should know that it is his responsibility to fix it. We won’t entertain excuses from him over why he cannot fix Nigeria. We are tired of those complaints. We want action to fix any faulty area.
What will former president Buhari be remembered for?
History will remember him comparing what the current administration of Tinubu will do just as his regime has vindicated former President Goodluck as a saint. Goodluck wanted to increase the pump price by only N5, but we all mobilised into the streets of Lagos against it. APC promised Nigerians heaven and earth, but gave little. We all saw Goodluck administration as a bad one, including me, when Buhari took charge, but what did we see at the end of the regime? Buhari government gave credibility to Goodluck’s government. Since nothing is necessarily good or bad except by comparison, it will take the achievement of this government to rate the performance of Buhari accurately.
What do you make of the slip from the Senate President over the payment of tokens to the senators?
What has Akpabio done wrong? What he said was not new to anybody. Why did Nigerians complain when more serious incidents happened under Ahmad Lawan? We should even commend Akpabio for what he did. He has alerted members of their senatorial district that their representative should give them part of the money as palliative.
What is your take on the recent warning by Bayelsa professionals to President Tinubu not to interfere in the state’s November 11 governorship election?
That group is an anonymous one. They don’t exist in the first place. If such a body exists, they ought to know that people’s votes determine electoral victory now. Abuja vote will not count and APC Bayelsa is not banking on the Abuja vote. We have learnt our lessons in several states where people banked on Abuja to win an election without success. In fact, why I am not thinking about Bayelsa election is that the incumbent governor could not maximise the opportunity given to him in an election he did not win. He totally failed the people after God gave him the opportunity to prove himself. His greatest undoing was the exposure by former Governor Nyesom Wike on the volume of funds they received from the Federal Government. He got such money, but there is no development in the state to show for it. To worsen his case, he lied that constructing one road in Bayelsa can build three bridges in Rivers State. He forgot that Rivers, Bayelsa, and Delta states have the same type of terrain and topology. If Wike can construct those flyovers, why should our governor continue to lie about the fund he got? The money would have turned around such a small state like Bayelsa. He has continued to hide under religion to deceive Bayelsans that we have a government of prosperity. But do you blame a governor whose passion is marrying more and more wives? He has no hiding place because he has nothing to show for his first tenure in office.
How true is the speculation that President Tinubu has promised APC candidate, Timipre Sylva to deliver the state to him?
President Tinubu cannot deliver Bayelsa because he has a lot of issues to contend with. Bayelsa election is the least of his concern because he is currently confronted with bigger issues affecting the entire country and by extension Africa. I urge them to go and prepare for the election.
What is giving you the confidence that APC will win Bayelsa when the state chapter of the party is not united?
I won’t deceive anybody to pretend that APC Bayelsa is united. We have our internal problems. Yes, we don’t take anybody for granted, we need everybody because the voting system has changed and every vote matters, but the situation where very few persons like the David Lyon camp felt that they are in charge is not fair. It used to be three factions, but now the Heineken Lopobiri faction has been taken care of with his confirmation as minister. Abuja people are the ones always causing the problem. And somebody like David Lyon forgot that we won the election for him despite the opposition from Abuja-based politicians like the Heineken faction. Our problem is everybody wanting to get something at the same time. If APC can win in 2019 without the Heineken faction, who says we cannot win in November without the Lyon faction? I have a strong conviction that the party can go into the election as a united family before the election. We have been appealing to everybody to put their differences behind us. It is the victory of the party that can ensure that the state will accommodate all these boys. If Lyon decides to sabotage the party from winning the election, it is his boys that will suffer more. He ought to understand that it is only APC victory that can ensure the accommodation of his boys. If we decide to pull down the party, it is our followers that will suffer it. That interest must override our selfish interests.
What are your fears for APC winning the Bayelsa governorship election?
If we must tell ourselves the truth, leaders of the party abandoning the members will certainly witch-hunt APC during the election. There has been a serious gap between the people at the centre and those at home since after the misfortune of the 2019 governorship election. There was no conscious effort to bridge the communication gap between the leaders of the party in the state at the national stage and party members in the state. The party members felt so used and abandoned after the 2019 election. The gap is a very big problem for the party because party members never enjoyed any benefit of joining the party which is the essence of democracy. The leaders of the party never touched the people. They were marginalised by the PDP government to the point of being run out of the state, but we were not there for them. However, many of the party members still standing strong despite the situation gave me the conviction that there is still hope for the party. I also believe strongly that the gap could be bridged before the election. What it means is that the party leaders have so much work to do.
The National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Ajibola Basiru has accused the Ademola Adeleke-led Peoples Democratic Party, PDP administration in Osun State of being incompetent.
Basiru claimed those who helped install the Adeleke administration in the state were already regretting their decision.
The former Senate spokesperson made the claims at a reception organised for him by the APC leadership of Osogbo Federal Constituency on Saturday.
While calling on party members to resolve their differences, work towards a stronger party and sack the current governor of the state, Ademola Adeleke, from office in 2026, he charged them not to cause internal disruption.
In his words, “You must work towards building a strong party. You must work very hard to reposition it for a better outing in the next round of elections.
“Less than a year after, those that wanted to destroy the good fortune of our state are already lamenting. Those that they put in government in the state don’t know how to govern.
“They are appointing SSA, Government House Pool; SSA Oranmiyan Newtown; SSA, children; SSA swimming pool and so on. They must be sacked from the government.
“When we sack him (Adeleke) in 2026, he will go for three days Diploma, as usual, to learn about NGO after he failed to sack Iyaloja General. The APC is an organised party. Let’s show more commitment.”
In a reaction, the state Commissioner for Information and Public Engagement, Kolapo Alimi, said he was not surprised since the APC National Secretary had a track record of talking recklessly.
Defending the recent appointment of aides by Governor Adeleke, Alimi maintained that they did not constitute grounds for non-performance.
