A former governor of Borno State and serving Senator, Kashim Shettima says Nigeria’s governing party, the All Progressives Congress, APC should give ex governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu the right of first refusal of its presidential ticket.
Senator Shettima said Mr. Tinubu should be given such rights because he has made a lot of sacrifices for the party.
He stated this at a conference of various Tinubu Support Groups across the nation organised by the umbrella body, the Support Groups Management Council (SGMC) in Abuja.
Mr. Tinubu had a week ago, declared his ambition to run for presidency in Nigeria’s 2023 General Election.
Senator Shettima explained the roles played by Tinubu in getting President Muhammadu Buhari into power.
He said; “In 2015, some aspirants with very huge war chest were itching to cling the ticket of the APC, like the rock of Gibraltar, Tinubu and his progressive team stood solidly behind the candidacy of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“My simple question, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, where were the new members of what I call ‘The Buhari’s Church of Later Days Saints?’ Where were they? We knew where their political loyalty laid in that particular convention when President Muhammadu emerged as the presidential candidate of the APC. Where were they?
“Some people say everything goes in politics, not everything goes in politics. We shall have minimal thresholds below which we won’t operate and the irreducible minimum is that after eight years of presidency in the north, the logic, common sense, equity, justice and fairness demand that power should move to the southern part of the country and who is better qualified?
“Ahmed Tinubu should be given the choice of first refusal. More than any other person, he has sacrificed more for this democracy, for the APC.”
The lawmaker stressed the need for Nigerians to elect a President in 2023 who could unify the country; a leader, who pandered to neither ethnic nor religious agenda, one who wasn’t bound by toxic regional solidarity and someone who has a track record of outstanding leadership.
He further urged Nigerians to desist from being fixated on Tinubu’s age, stressing that the work of presidency wasn’t a “bricklaying exercise”.
Also speaking at the event, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babchir Lawal, said the primary objective of the founders of APC was to build an enduring political party capable of sustaining responsive governance that could bring positive change in the country.
Selfish interests
However Mr. Lawal noted that the selfish interests of a few members have not allowed the party to achieve the founding fathers’ vision.
He said; “Compounding these problems in the last one year is the apparent hijacking of the party by a self-serving cabal who, driven by personal ambitions, have failed to organise even simple conflict-free ward, local government, and state congresses, not to talk of a national convention. As we speak, there are only a handful of states in the country that do not have parallel state executives…This is the current state of our party and it is in this environment that we gathered here, and must operate to deliver Tinubu as the party’s flag bearer at the 2023 presidential election. And this we will do through consensus, indirect or direct party primaries by the grace of God.
“We are neither offended nor threatened by whichever method the party chooses to adapt for the emergence of its presidential candidate. But, of course, being democrats, we prefer a method that involves all the card carrying members of the party in this choosing process.”
On his part, the Director General, SGMC, Abdulmumin Jibrin, said the council has worked to streamline the Tinubu support groups to 2,500 for better effectiveness.
Jibrin explained that ”the SGMC was not a Campaign organisation but focused on preliminary preparatory activities to organise the support groups for easy management and to be able to achieve the objectives of a Tinubu presidency.”
Jubrin urged the support groups to continue their aggressive political mobilisation and the recruitment of people at the state, local government, ward, and unit levels.
VON