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| APC National Chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu |
Trouble could be brewing within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), ahead of the party's presidential primary in May, as it appears it's newly appointed (consensus) National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, has some dirty tricks up his sleeves, for reasons largely not unconnected to next year's presidential election.
There has been issues of zoning for quite some time, but which seem to have been settled when the party's national Chairmanship position was zoned to the North, a move believed to suggest that the presidency would be zoned to the South.
It does however, appears that the APC is going for an open contest as aspirants from the North say they are as determined as those from the south, to succeed Buhari in 2023.
This development for some reason, may have influenced Adamu's position on zoning, and has recently disclosed that the party has not taken a position on zoning.
“There is nowhere it is written that once a chairman emerges comes from the North, the presidential candidate must come from the South. It is just a convention, it isn’t written in the APC constitution," party chieftain, Chief Chekwas Okorie, told Saturday Tribune in a telephone interview, as he backs the position of the National Chairman.
However, reacting to the development, The Arewa Consultative Youth Forum (ACYF), in a statement on Saturday, said the statement credited to Adamu was capable of heating up the polity and spelling doom for the party if not quickly withdrawn.
The group said it was worrisome that the party chairman could come up with such an inflammable statement when all critical stakeholders are already on the same page on the need for the Presidency to return to the South in 2023.
The statement read: “The unfortunate statement credited to Senator Adamu is regrettable just as it is demeaning of his status of the chairman of a ruling party.
“Even a political novice is aware that the consensus from critical political stakeholders is that Presidency must return to the South in 2023.
“His statement that no agreement had been reached on zoning is clearly not in the best interest of the party.
“In fact, the statement is capable of leading to electoral defeat for our great party if not quickly withdrawn.
“It is a statement that can cause confusion, over heat the polity and eventually lead to electoral defeat.
“Leaders must learn to weigh their words and also feel the pulse of the people when making statements on issues as important as this.”