Don't push Ganduje for APC National Chairman, Lukman warns Tinubu, PGF

The National Vice Chairman, North-West, of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Salihu Lukman, said President Bola Tinubu and Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) would be wrong to decide on a candidate for the vacant post of the National Chairman of the party without recourse to the National Working Committee, NWC.

Consequently, Lukman urged those pushing the candidacy of former Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, for the position of APC National Chairman, should desist henceforth.

Specifically, he said PGF Chairman and Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma, should allow due process to go on in the party.

In a statement on Sunday, Lukman said choosing Ganduje would alter the zoning arrested in the party, as the post of National Chairman is for the North Central, and not the North West where Ganduje is from.

He noted that the inability to revive statutory organs of the party would suggest that the process of replacing existing vacancies will be manipulated to suit some narrow interests within the party, even if it means violating provisions of the APC constitution.

According to him, “As NWC members, we must be seen to be active in the debate on the way forward. A situation whereby President Asiwaju Tinubu and Progressive Governors are being alleged to have decided on Dr. Ganduje as the next National Chairman of APC without consulting other power blocs in the party and without meeting any of the organs of the party, including the NWC, is very risky and potentially damaging to President Asiwaju Tinubu and the party.”

Lukman stressed that if this is associated with a President who comes from a military background, it will be understandable, but to be associated with Tinubu, whose background is outrightly civilian, having to lead the struggle for democracy in Nigeria for almost four decades, would be highly unimaginable.

He said: “We must therefore appeal to all those sponsoring this campaign to nominate Dr. Ganduje for the position of APC National Chairman, especially His Excellency, Hope Uzodinma, Chairman, Progressive Governors Forum, to come to order and allow due process within the party to take its rightful course in the selection process of who becomes the next APC National Chairman.

“Nobody, including the PGF, should be allowed to seek to entrench arbitrariness and injustice in the determination of who emerges as the next National Chairman of APC.

“We must remind everyone, including President Asiwaju Tinubu that so far, the agreed zoning formula in APC seed the position of National Chairman of the party to North Central.”