By Sarah NEGEDU
With just few days before the national convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, some Northern youths within the party are kicking against any form of presidential endorsement of preferred Chairmanship candidate.
The youths under the aegis of Alliance of Northern Progressive Youths, ANPY, are rather calling for an equal playing field where the candidates will slug it out based on their antecedents.
ANPY, at a Press conference in Abuja advised the leadership of APC to distance itself from all the sinister plots to smuggle in any candidate that will further cause disintegration in the party, even as they insist that former governor Tanko Al-Makura must not be shut out of the contest.
The Director, Gender and Governance of ANPY, Amina Wakawa, accused the party of grand conspiracy to rig out the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, bloc from the power equation of the party’s leadership.
According to her, it would be great injustice to endorse someone who was not among the blocs that laboured to form the ruling party, as it’s chairman, while shutting out Al-Makura who was part of the forces that worked for the merger which produced APC.
She said Al-Makura having been standing with President Muhammadu Buhari right from the CPC days, it would be unfair to push him out of the contest, now that all the other power blocs have produced the party’s National Chairman, except the CPC.
The group disclosed that it has mobilized party loyalists, especially the youths in the North to oppose such bizarre act of injustice.
“There is no gainsaying to the fact that Almakura contributed greatly to the successes of President Muhammadu Buhari and to the party at the National level. He delivered on so many national assignments given to him by the party’s national headquarters especially as Chairman APC primary election Committee in Ekiti and APC National Reconciliation Committee for the North-East States among his numerous contributions.
“Therefore, as the party gets set for the National Convention slated for March 26 with Al-Makura indicating interest to lead the party as its National Chairman, most analysts believe that he is a round peg in a round hole and his emergence would be a reward for loyalty, hard work, competency and ensure justice, equity and fairness taking into consideration the fact that it is only CPC which Al-Makura belongs that is yet to produced the party national chairman among the three legacy parties that formed APC”,she added.
Also speaking, one of the leaders of the group, Jafaru Logor, said the Northern youths were not happy with the decision of APC to accept a stranger in as a National Chairman.
Another leader, Abdul Garba, also alleged that the party had not shown enough interest in matters that concern the youths, having left them behind in all its decision making processes.
According to him, the youths of the party will resist any form of imposition of leaders at all levels of the party.
