By Joy Odor
The All Progressive Congress (APC) Elders from the North Central Zone has affirmed that the National Party Chairman, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has proven his ability to lead the party to a higher level during up coming Ondo Gubernatorial election and 2027 general election.
This is sequel to the declaration of Monday Okpebholo of APC winner of Edo State 2024 governorship election by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who beat his rival Asue Ighodalo of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) by scoring 291,667 votes.
Speaking on behalf of the delegation from Benue, Plateau, Kogi, Niger, Nasarawa, FCT, and Kwara States at the APC National Secretariat Abuja to pay their solidarity visit, the former Senate President, Senator Ameh Ebute informed that equally important is how the rank and file members of the Party are directly benefiting from the activities of the Party across the country.
Senator Ebute said Ganduje is not just a performing Chairman but a National Chairman that had done the most in the shortest possible time to positively impact individual members of the great party, while the party have also recorded impressive electoral strides bereft of rancour under your leadership.
“We are from communities in Benue, Plateau, Kogi, Niger, Nasarawa, FCT, and Kwara States. We are true representatives of the leadership and members of our great Party across States in North Central Nigeria.
“We have by our own free will, and as a collective of true progressives, decided to pay Your Excellency this solidarity visit because we believe this is the best time to physically express our appreciation of the great things you have been doing for our great Party since you were sworn into the office of the National Chairman. Therefore, this is a solidarity visit to our respected National Chairman by Party members of North Central Nigeria to ask and demand that you continue to do more for our Party.
“Of course, Mr Chairman, we are not unaware of growing calls by some elements of the Party from the North Central Zone for reversal of the occupant of the office of the National Chairman based on the zoning arrangements that made Senator Abdullahi Adamu, your predecessor, who is from Nasarawa State in the North Central Zone, the National Chairman of our Party before he resigned in 2023.
“While we acknowledge the efforts of these advocates of returning the Chairman’s office to North Central Zone, we however, believe that the more compelling reason for anybody to advance the manner of person that will occupy the office of the National Chairman of our Party should be about consideration for track record of performance as shown in winning political contests against the opposition.
“When we put all these together, we came to the conclusion that you, Your Excellency, ticks all the boxes for a performing excellent Chairman” noted.
In his address, Ganduje expressed his happiness that the party members realized the importance of having a stable political party that is focused, ready to win election any time anywhere.
According to him, APC would not continue to listen to undesirable elements who are not focused, who are not real party men, who want to see us that we are in disarray.
“I thanked the leaders and members of the APC from the North-central, adding that his leadership will not listen to those who were trying to work against the unity of the party.
“There is no doubt that there is an opposition but we believe with your cooperation, we have no place for that, we are people, politicians who are committed. We know we are forging ahead so we thank you for these resolutions.
” The way governor Godwin Obaseki parted ways with APC made it more difficult, leaving the party in pieces to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) a few years ago.
“The fight continued, until Gov Obaseki was brought down yesterday following his defeat at the poll.
“The Edo election victory was a difficult exercise because we were competing with a sitting government who was one of our own.
“You know APC’s Institute is driven by knowledge but not just beating about the bush, that is taking action based on knowledge, based on information, based on data. So we have a lot of data now before us.
“We will sit down and invite good social scientists that will scrutinised every action and inaction in order to guide us during subsequent elections.
The former Kano State Governor, said the party is working assiduously to reclaim the whole of South-East geo-political zone.
“I would like to remind you that we have a programme. We have a project which is named political demarginalization.
“You know, the children of the same father but different mothers, when there’s a contest, it is always very keen,
“The fight continued until yesterday, we were able to bring him down” Ganduje said.
