President Bola Tinubu.
By Marie-Therese Nanlong
Jos – President Bola Tinubu has been lauded for paying attention to the call to convene the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the All Progressives Congress, APC and plan for the Party’s national convention.
Recall that it has become public knowledge that the Party may hold its NEC meeting next month and a group, North Central APC Forum has commended the decision.
Speaking in Jos, Plateau State on Wednesday, the Forum’s Chairman, Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, said his group has been canvassing for the NEC meeting and the national convention so that the lingering issues could be addressed.
According to Zazzaga, their excitement is that the North Central APC has been calling the attention of the President to intervene in several issues brewing crises in the Party, and to call for a national convention.
Zazzaga stated, “We want to commend President Bola Tinubu for calling the NEC meeting of the APC this coming September. This has been our long-term cry of the North Central APC so that many issues concerning the Party can be addressed, and so that we can equally table our grievances from the North Central region and get it addressed before we forge ahead and intensify our plans ahead of the 2027 election.
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“So, the letter calling for the meeting from the President to plan out the convention before the end of the year is a welcome development. This shows the President has listened to our call. Our role in APC from the North Central perspective right from the 2015 election to the 2023 election was very critical towards the success of the Party at the polls.
“Hence, we will not spare any effort to pursue our cause and do things that will uplift the North Central zone, while we will continue to deepen our loyalty to the APC in general and continue working for the success of the Party.
“Besides the strong contribution of the North Central to the development and sustenance of the APC over the years, as well as the tremendous support we gave to the emergence of President Bola Tinubu as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the region has also delivered five governors for the APC out of the six States in the North Central region.
“Apart from Plateau State which is of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Kwara, Niger, Benue, Kogi, and Nasarawa State is of the APC, and therefore the North Central region has made a strong statement on its achievement for the Party and deserves to be listened to and given its due respect and request.”
He added, “Our demand from the North Central is a well-known fact. The North Central APC Forum along with various leaders and chieftains of the APC from the region have been intensifying the push for the zoning of the National Chairmanship position of the Party to the region, because that position is well deserved by the region owing to its contribution and it is our constitutional right, as well as the Party arrangement.
“After the resignation of Abdullahi Adamu from Nasarawa State, someone from the North Central region should have been picked to replace him as the National Chairman, and not Abdullahi Ganduje from the North West State of Kano.
“That is why we have dragged Ganduje to the Federal High Court in Abuja, and the judgment is coming up on September 18 (a day before one of the dates, September 19, proposed by President Bola Tinubu for the convention). In any case, this NEC meeting should resolve the many lingering issues in the Party.”
