Salihu Lukman, the national vice chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for North West, has rejected the reported plan to replace Abdullahi Adamu with Abdullahi Ganduje as the party’s national chairman.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that in a statement on Thursday, Lukman said that anointing Ganduje for the seat ahead of the party’s convention would be “the height of insensitivity.”
He said that such a move would completely distort the zoning arrangement that informed the present configuration of the leadership of the National Assembly.
“With the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Deputy Senate President coming from North West and North Central shut out of consideration, to propose the party’s National Chairman move to North West from North Central will be unjust and almost political suicide,” Lukman said.
He called on the APC’s National Working Committee (NWC) to “properly take the driving seat in managing and facilitating negotiations to produce and engage leaders of the party.”
“The NWC must sit up and guide the unfolding negotiations. No single power bloc should be allowed to appropriate the process,” Lukman said.
The statement reads in part: “In fact, if anything, some of the speculations, if true, will reduce to nonsense the decision to have a change of leadership, which means that no lessons have been learnt from all the circumstances of the last few years since the emergence of APC as a political party.
“Already, part of the speculations emerging from the Governor’s bloc is that Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje is being considered to succeed Senator Abdullahi Adamu. If this is true, it only suggests insensitivity and taking members of the party for granted. This is without prejudice to the person of Dr. Ganduje.
“This is because such a choice will completely distort the zoning arrangement that informed the present configuration of the leadership of the National Assembly.
“With the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Deputy Senate President coming from North West and North Central shut out of consideration, to propose the party’s National Chairman move to North West from North Central will be unjust and almost political suicide.
“We must caution our governors that since the emergence of APC, governors have served almost as the conscience of the party. Any consideration for such an insensitive and unjust consideration of Dr Ganduje to become the National Chairman of APC must be discarded.
“If anything, the position of National Chairman of the APC must be retained in North Central. Part of the challenge of managing the current transition within the party is getting the NWC to properly take the driving seat in managing and facilitating negotiations to produce and engage leaders of the party. The NWC must sit up and guide the unfolding negotiations. No single power bloc should be allowed to appropriate the process.”
Lukman’s statement comes amid growing speculation that President Bola Tinubu has tipped Ganduje for the position of the APC National Chairman.
Ganduje is the immediate-past governor of Kano State and is seen as a close ally of the president.
