The North-Central All Progressives Congress (APC) Forum has asked President Bola Tinubu and other stakeholders of the party to allow the region to produce the next National Chairman of the party, for the sake of “fairness, justice and equity”.
The demand followed Abdullahi Ganduje’s sudden resignation as National Chairman on Friday.
In a statement released in Abuja yesterday by its Chairman, a member of the APC campaign council for the 2023 election, Saleh Zazzaga, the North-Central APC Forum said it is time for the party to do the “right thing” by returning the position of National Chairman to the region.
The Forum also appealed to Tinubu to ask APC Acting National Chairman, Ali Bukar Dalori, to immediately convene a meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) towards the emergence of a substantive National Chairman from the North-Central zone.
“We are therefore appealing to President Bola Tinubu, who we have found to be a listening President, and stakeholders of the party to allow the North-Central to produce the next Chairman of the APC. We also appeal to the President to direct the Acting National Chairman to immediately convene a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting for the purpose of electing a substantive National Chairman, who will come from the North-Central.
The Forum insisted that beyond the subsisting zoning arrangement, the North-Central had demonstrated that it deserves the position of National Chairman, as the zone gave Tinubu and the APC the third highest number of votes in the 2023 presidential poll – behind the South-West and North-West.
Tinubu received 1,760,993 votes (41.3%) in the North-Central in 2023. Peter Obi, of the Labour Party (LP), got 1,415,557 votes (33.2%) while Atiku Abubakar, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), received 1,025,178 votes (24.1%) in the region.
The Forum equally observed that, among the various geo-political zones, the North-Central has the highest number of APC governors, a development which it said underscores the strength of the party in the region.
The APC controls five of the six North-Central states. Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa and Niger have APC governors. PDP is the ruling party in Plateau State. The North-Central APC Forum has been trying to lure Plateau State governor, Caleb Mutfwang, to the party.
The Forum, in the statement, further noted that the North-Central region has several capable personalities who have the capacity to lead the APC to victory in the 2027 general election.
