On Wednesday, many party faithful from the North Central numbering hundreds shut down the national secretariat of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC in a show of support for the National Chairman, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje.
Insisting that Ganduje must serve out his term despite reported protests by some North Central APC elements that the position remained zoned to the area, the hundreds of APC stakeholders and elders said Ganduje is blazing a new trail in ideological politics in the political annals of Nigeria.
Led by the Second Republic Senate President, Ameh Ebute and another Second Republic Senator from Benue State, Sen. Jack Tilley-Gyado, the APC delegation said Ganduje has their undiluted support.
The development was however not without drama as a vehicle caught fire within the immediate outer cordon of the secretariat.
The car painted in red, with registration number TSE 423 AA, Benue State, suddenly went up in flames around the entrance of the secretariat.
The fire was however put out by a combined effort of security personnel attached to the secretariat and other motorists in the area.
Addressing Ganduje and some members of the National Working Committee, Ebute said; “If you look around those of us gathered before you today, you will notice many familiar faces from States across North Central Nigeria. Indeed, we have, counted among us, grassroots and eminent leaders of communities and associations that are passionately All Progressives Congress in their political leanings and identities.
“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. Equally important is how the rank and file members of the Party are directly benefiting from the activities of the Party across the country.
“When we put all these together, we came to the conclusion that you, Your Excellency, ticks all the boxes for a performing excellent Chairman. Indeed, you’re not just a performing National Chairman but a National Chairman that had done the most in the shortest possible time to positively impact individual members of our great party while our party have also recorded impressive electoral strides bereft of rancour under your leadership.
“By these considerations, we hereby declare our unalloyed support for you, Your Excellency, to continue to manage the affairs of our great Party, the APC and to remain in the office of the National Chairman, for the good and development of members of the Party especially for the purpose of ensuring stability in the administration of our great Party”,
he added.
On his part, Tilley-Gyado said Ganduje has done well in relating to parry members without considering their ethnicity or creed.
“You (Ganduje) are doing a great job. You run to everywhere there is crisis. Like my Senate President said that you are unbiased, you don’t have religion. As a means of governing this party, Christians or Muslims alike have equal opportunities under your leadership”, he stated.
In his response, Ganduje urged the APC leaders to continue to work with the party leadership to support President Bola Tinubu in his efforts to maintain peace and security in Nigeria.
“So, members of our party from North-Central geopolitical zone, a very important geopolitical zone because, out of the six states, we have five for APC, even the sixth we were about to get it but we have to accept whatever we got. Your zone is a good example of unity in diversity because your geopolitical zone is a good example of diversity in politics – different religions, tribes, ethnic nationalities. Yet, you are able to come together under an umbrella we call APC. We have to thank you for that. A homogeneous geopolitical zone is not able to come together but a heterogeneous geopolitical zone (North-central is able to do that. We thank you for that and we assure you, we will take APC to higher levels in Nigeria.
“The recent elections in the three states, we were able to maintain our states of Imo, Kogi, we narrowly lost Bayelsa state. In the recent bye- elections, we won more than 90%. We have Senators, House of Representatives, State Assembly members. We have another election coming up in Edo and Ondo states, so we have focused our minds on that. Any distraction in the structure of the party will not augur well for the party.
“These assaults on Mr President, these assaults on Nigerians, we believe we will soon be out of these problems. We have to thank him for his renewed Hope Agenda; efforts, commitment and we assure him we are 100% for him”,
he added.
