2023 and APC National Chairmanship
For an equitable power distribution, the APC must zone its national chairmanship to North Central, writes Louis Achi
After closely evaluating the national political situation ahead of the 2023 general election, particularly, the impending national convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the APC Patriotic Ambassadors of Nigeria, led by Dr. Aliyu Ibrahim, is pushing a a case for zoning the national chairmanship to the North Central. In a recent official memo to Governor Mai Mala Buni ofYobe State and Chairman, APC Caretaker Committee, obtained by THISDAY, the group passionately appealed to all APC chieftains, members of the National Working Committee, all elected representatives, governors and National/State Assembly members to back zoning of the party’s national chairmanship to the North Central geopolitical region.
“The entire North-Central Zone, which also houses, what is politically labeled as the MiddleBelt, will equally swell the electoral advantages in favor of the APC, as a political party that had been able to change the political narratives of political interests-aggregation, old system of power-play, power-game and entrenchment of novel ideals and ideas that modern polity, allows globally,”the memo, to Mala Buni, signed by Dr. Aliyu Ibrahim, elaborated.
Tracking back to the nation’s recent democratic history, the group reasoned that,“A tie-back to the 1999 return to democracy experience, during which period, one of the founding fathers of G-38, which later metamorphosed into the Peoples Democratic Party, late Chief Solomon Daushep Lar, a second Republic Executive Civilian Governor of old Plateau State between 1979 and 1983, came from the North-Central Zone.
“Late Chief Solomon Daushep Lar, saw the enormous electoral potentials housed by the states that make up the North Central geo-political zone, which his party exploited to full advantage in terms of electoral investments & return on electoral investments, respectively, ostensibly, managing the gains of the ELECTORAL RESOURCES available for usage.
More, it held that,“Here in the year, 2021, with just less than two months to the National Convention of the All Progressives Congress, zoning the National Chairmanship of the Party to the North Central geo-political zone, will greatly help the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal administration, in ushering a new sociology of voting behaviour that will place the APC on good electoral advantage during the secondary elections, come 2023 Presidential and general election.
“Having a National Chairman from the North Central geo-political zone of Nigeria, will provide a solid balance between the Southern and Northern planks of Nigeria.”
According to the APC Patriotic Ambassadors of Nigeria, this strategy will clearly form a buffer against the political infiltration of the zone by other rival political parties ahead of the 2023 elections. The group also strongly believes that having a very experienced political leadership figure with huge administrative wherewithal, competencies, robust knowledge-base and bureaucratic skills produced from the North Central Zone, will no doubt, give APC its needed leap to victory in the 2023 presidential and general election.
Further, the Aliyu-led APC body reasoned that, “The capacity of all elected representatives to successfully manage the gains of their electoral successes, remain the most vital component of all variables or factors that define the functionality of any good governance infrastructure and system globally.”
This footing, the body held, will help the top hierarchy of the APC, to enhance the functionality of the party’s determination towards sustaining and retaining the hold on political structure of the current President Buhari-led federal administration“as well as attract greater number of states for the party, ahead of the 2023 presidential and general polls.”
Willy-nilly, the initiative to zone the APC national chairmanship position to the North Central, fundamentally puts Kogi State GovernorYahya Bello’s signaled presidential bid on the spot. Traditionally, the position of national chair is not zoned together with the presidential position to the same geo-political region.
With about two months to APC’s national convention, the emerging consensus among many political stakeholders and pundits is that zoning the national chairmanship position to the North Central, beyond greatly helping the Buhari administration, would signal that the party might have resolved to zone the presidency to the South.
The major opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) closely watches.