APC

By Adamu Hussaini.

Since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, I have followed the politics and its sentiment based on region and religion for about two decades. The organic way it has been going is that whenever a southerner/Christian emerges as the presidential candidate of a particular party, his running mate will automatically be a Muslim from the northern region and vice visa. This has been the practice starting from the days of President Olusegun Obasanjo, a southwestern Christian, to his successor, late Umaru Musa Yar’adua of blessed memory. Who came from a northwestern Muslim family to Dr Goodluck Jonathan, an Ijaw Christian from the south-south Niger Delta region, down to the current President, Muhammadu Buhari of the northern extraction.

 All their running mates are from other regions and religious divides. The only time in Nigerian Democratic history where a Muslim-Muslim ticket was formed was in late MKO Abiola’s June 12, 1993, with his running mate Babagana Kingibe.

If we can recall vividly, after the 2014 presidential primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), President Muhamadu Buhari wanted to pick Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as his running mate. But other powerful politicians, like the former senate president and a two-term Governor of Kwara State, Senator Bukola Saraki, stood their ground and vehemently opposed it because of the fear of having a Muslim-Muslim ticket. We left it for history to judge whether they did it based on fairness or selfish political interest.

Suddenly, the political equations are trying to deviate from the known established political norms, which characterized the Nigerian politics of regional and religious sentiments; after the emergence of Senator Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, a Muslim as the APC presidential candidate and the party’s flag bearer for the 2023 general election. Tinubu was a former Southwestern Lagos State governor. Since Tinubu is a Muslim from the south, Nigerians expect him to pick a northern Christian as his running mate this time. This will be seen as fairness, equity, “JUSTICE,” and the possibility of carrying all the religious beliefs.

But considering a Christian running mate has its political consequences. Because many may argue that northern politics is based on religious sentiments, you may find that there are only three states, Taraba, Benue and Plateau state, out of the 19 northern states that have Christians as both the Governor and their deputy. So, why not the party pick a Muslim from the north as Senator Tinubu’s running mate? Since the primary reason(s) for forming a political party is to win elections.

Many believed that the opposition People Democratic Party, PDP jettisoned its zoning arrangement to field the former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate to woo northern votes. Since the northwestern state of Kano has more votes than some five small states in the south, in this case, Tinubu’s running mate should be a Muslim from the northwest, where there are a lot of votes or the northeastern part of the country, where they have never produced a Nigerian president in the last 20 years for equity sake. In my little political observation. PDP gave Alhaji Atiku Abubakar the ticket because religious politics is more pronounced in Arewa than in the southern part of Nigeria.

Lastly, I think the earlier we start looking at who has competence, vision, enviable track record, and pedigree, among other virtues, the better for us as a people. And not electing or supporting candidates because of the region they came from, or their religious beliefs are better for the country. Nigeria is the most populous black nation in the world. So anything happening there may affect other black races living on the African continent. as the saying goes, “a stitch in time saves nine.”

Hussaini wrote from Gombe state, Nigeria and can be reached through hadamugombe@gmail.com.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

Former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmad Tinubu, has been declared the winner of the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential primary election. 

APC held a special convention between 6 to 8 of June 2022 to elect the ruling party’s presidential candidate.

Tinubu emerged as the APC candidate at the end of the presidential primary after polling about 60% of the 2300 votes. 

He defeated his closest rivals, Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo and former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Chibueke Amaechi, to clinch the ruling party’s ticket.

Tinubu is expected to face the candidate of the country’s major opposition party, Atiku Abubakar, and others in the 2023 general election.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

Former Governor of Borno State and Director General of Bola Ahmad Tinubu’s Campaign Organization, Senator Kashim Shettima, has tendered his heartfelt apology to Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, and the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan. 

Shettima posted the apology on Facebook on Sunday, June 5, 2022, where he stated that his comments on the VP and Senate President were taken out of context and overblown. 

In an interview on Channels Television on Thursday, Shettima compared the VP’s nice demeanour to an ice-cream seller and Ahmad Lawan’s name to a tomato seller.

“My assessments of the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, and the President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan, were well-intentioned. I never set out to subject them to ridicule but, rather, to stir up interest in the contrasting virtues of the cast of aspirants putting up a fight against my preferred aspirant, one most favoured and advantaged to guarantee APC’s victory in the forthcoming presidential election. 

“The interpretations of my remarks on Professor Osinbajo and Senator Lawan are, thus, being done literally and overblown. My words weren’t woven to portray them as unworthy aspirants but merely to qualify them as non-threatening contenders.

“I, however, take full responsibility for my utterances and wish to appeal to our teeming supporters to neither take my words out of their metaphoric contexts nor interpret them as a measure and declaration of hostility towards my dear friends and allies.

“I hereby tender my unreserved apologies to the Vice President and the President of the Senate for the unintended pains my jibes might have caused them and their families and supporters.” The statement reads in part. 

Shettima then urges different All Progressives Congress camps to be united, as the journey to the general election is about to start.

By Ali Tijjani Hassan

One would be amazed while looking at the similarities between the words “Religion and Region.” One will be even more amazed by how these twin factors play an unimaginable role in Nigerian politics.

Nigeria is divided into six geopolitical zones; North-central, Northwest, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest and South-South. In a nutshell, South and North. In terms of Religious diversity, we have only two major religions: Christianity and Islam. Subsequently, Christianity and Islam dominate South and North, respectively.

As the main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, elected Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as its flag-bearer in the forthcoming polls of 2023. On the other hand, the ruling party, the All Progressive Congress, has yet to choose their flag-bearer capable of winning the election against Atiku.

The APC has zoned their presidential quota to the South-West and Vice President to the Northeast. Their front-line aspirants (Tinubu, Osinbajo) are already from the Southwest. Alhaji Ahmad Bola Tinubu was a former governor of Lagos state. Prof. Yemi Osinbajo is currently on the echelon of his second-cum-two terms as Vice President of Nigeria.

Religion is another factor we have seen since the birth of Democracy in Nigeria in 1999. How religion plays a role in who would be President or Vice President, the candle of Muslim-Christian or Christian-Muslim tickets is still flaming. We witnessed Obasanjo/Atiku, Yar Adu’a/Jonathan, Jonathan/Namadi, and Buhari/Osinbajo.

The nightmare to the APC is how to relate their zoned system with the emergence of their candidates. Both Tinubu and Osinbajo are competent, but Tinubu, like his counterpart of PDP, is a gigantic gorilla that wouldn’t allow any candidate to win over them.

If Tinubu emerges as a flag-bearer, he has no option but to pick the former speaker of the house of representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, since he is the only influential Christian of the party from the Northeast. Sequel of this, both North and South wouldn’t produce a candidate that is not condign to their religious interest.

Professor Yemi Osinbajo

Prof. Yemi Osinbajo is an influential Christian Southerner that was once seen as ready to serve in the eyes of Nigerians. Still, the disregard of the present Buhari-led administration tarnishes his striking image with red.

If Osinbajo gets the ticket, he must pick his running-mate from Northeast. Then Osinbajo’s running-mate must be an influential Muslim and northerner with integrity, accountability and competency. The qualities mentioned above would win the hearts of Northerners to revive the fallen hope that they put into the APC earlier.

It has been in the tradition of Northern politics since 2003, when president Muhammad Buhari stepped his foot into the presidential race arena. There is a constant twelve million votes that were captives in his favour. Therefore, whosoever would be Osinbajo’s running-mate must have the passkeys to open or conquer the twelve million vote bank.

Who will be Osinbajo’s running-mate?

Here in the Northeast, we have only two politically influential actors capable of running with Osinbajo and likely to conquer: The first is Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum, the governor of Borno State.

Prof. Zulum was a legend of fortune. Although he became the governor of Borno when the state was in the sorrow of insurgency, his braveness, doggedness, and justice with fairness made him the messiah of the Borno people then. That fortunate promotion paved Zulum’s way to be loved by many Nigerians.

The second influential Muslim northeasterner that could win the hearts of northerners and retain or succeed the Buhari’s twelve million votes is the minister of communication and digital economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami. Due to his Islamic religious sacerdotalism, the Sunnis sect fanatic would vote for him. Mainly, northern Muslims are Sunni. Therefore, a Pastor/Sheikh ticket is also possible.

Ipso-facto, we should say that the upcoming 2023 will be a “religion and region” war.

Ali Tijjani Hassan writes from Potiskum, Yobe state.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

Northern governors of the All Progressives Congress, APC, have backed the transfer of power to Southern Nigeria.

The governors made this known in Abuja on Saturday, June 4, 2022, after a meeting.

The eleven governors who voted in favour of the decision include: Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina, Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger, Abdullahi A. Sule of Nasarawa, Prof B.G Umara Zulum of Borno, Mal. Nasir Elrufai of Kaduna, Muhammad Inuwa Yahya of Gombe, Bello B. Matawalle of Zamfara State, Simon Bako Lalong of Plateau, Dr A.U Ganduje of Kano, Senator Abubakar Atiku Baguda of Kebi State and the former Sokoto State Governor, Senator Aliyu Wammako.

The governors believed the decision was taken in the best interest of the country.

“APC governors and political leaders from the northern states of Nigeria today met to review the political situation and to further support our party in providing progressive leadership amidst our national challenges.

“During our discussions, we welcomed President Muhammadu Buhari’s invitation to governors and other stakeholders to contribute to the emergence of a strong presidential candidate for the APC.

“After careful deliberation, we wish to state our firm conviction that after eight years in office of President Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the APC for the 2023 elections should be one of our teeming members from the southern states of Nigeria.

“It is a question of honour for the APC, an obligation that is not in anyway affected by the decisions taken by another political party. We affirm that upholding this principle is in the best interest of building a stronger, more united and more progressive country,” the communique reads in part.

They also urged presidential aspirants from North to withdraw from the race on the ruling party’s platform. Consequent of their decision, Jigawa State Governor, Abubakar Badaru has withdrawn from the race.

By Zayyad I. Muhammad

The May 27th 2022 Adamawa State All Progressive Congress (APC) gubernatorial primary election was hotly contested, very transparent, free, and fair.

Six contestants participated in the election — Former Governor Muhammadu Umaru Jibrilla Bindow, Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed Binani, Former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) Nuhu Ribadu, Member House of Representatives representing Ganye, Jada, Toungo and Mayo Belwa Federal Constituency, Abdul Razak Namdas, Former Chairman of the   Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) Wafari Theman and  Umar Mustapha Otumba, a business tycoon.

Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed Binani won the primaries with 430 votes, while Nuhu Ribadu came second with 288 votes, former governor Bindow got 103 votes, and Abdul Razak Namdas scored 94 votes while Wafari and Mustapha got 21 and 39 votes respectively.

Wafari came to the contest unprepared — firstly, his tactics failed to work for him. Wafari solely relied on the strategy that, being the only Christian in the contest, he will get all the Christians’ votes. In fact, Wafari painstakingly took the statistic of all the Christian delegates throughout the state. However, he failed to understand that, in such a contest, this kind of approach doesn’t work.  Secondly, and most importantly, Wafari suffered cash flow problems. He wasn’t able to tour most parts of the state nor meet the delegates. Wafari couldn’t even win his local government area – Hong.

Abdulrazak Namdas is the only aspirant that toured the entire state and spent heavily early in the campaigning period. In fact, this writer criticized Namdas’s behaviour as a candidate instead of as an aspirant.  However, Namdas’s behaviour of acting like a candidate is borne out of the contentment that he is the only aspirant from Adamawa southern zone- the zone has 9 local government councils. Furthermore, Namdas so much believe, that he already has the over 200 votes from Toungo, Jada, Ganye and Mayo Belwa LGAs. Namdas heavily relied on votes from the Adamawa Minority Forum, but he was shocked. Namdas’s errors were that he spent too much, and too early in the wrong ways. He also relied on votes that he had really not secured and lacked a robust campaign team.

Former Governor Muhammdu Umaru Jirilla Bindow is one of the most likeable aspirants in the contest. Since he lost to Fintiri in the 2019 governorship election, Bindow has remained the leader of the APC in the state. Most of the stakeholders’ meetings were held at his residence in Abuja until the time he asked Boss Mustapha to takeover. Though, Boss never called such a meeting at his residence. The reason is that Boss always tries to avoid controversy and he appears comfortable with his SGF position. Bindow came to the race with a strong war chest but poor strategy.  Bindow was convinced that the APC structure would work for him. After all, he erected it. However, he failed to secure the votes of Mubi North, Mubi South, and Maiha LGAs combined. Bindow and his team found it hard to believe he came third, because, on paper, Nuhu and Binani shouldn’t have beaten him.  

Umar Mustapha Otumba came to the race with a very poor understanding of real local politics. No doubt that Otumba understands the politics of the first world, he is in the know of how to analyze development, but those are not the languages the delegates understand. Otumba was aggressive and overconfident. He was the first to buy the APC governorship form. What ‘killed’ Otumba’s ambition was, that the delegate and in fact, the ‘politics; saw his approach as too artificial. What he did,  was just like, he spoke in Chinese while addressing the French- Nigerian local politics don’t understand his kind of approach.   

Nuhu Ribadu operated his game as the true policeman that he is. His entire approach was covert. Nuhu didn’t open an official campaign office nor set up the traditional campaign team with a DG, he only formed a small committee two weeks before the primaries. What Nuhu did was; that he spent a good time working on his weak point- grassroots link. He avoided controversies, he never underrated anybody, built friendships, and tried to localize himself. Nuhu has been silently assisting the APC financially and otherwise. His 288 votes were not a coincidence- he earned it – through constant engagement, mobilization, and support from all the APC executives at the LGA level. He supported the creation of an environment to discuss Adamawa APC’s problems at local government levels and proffer solutions. These were the major factors that facilitated the 288 votes secured by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. Nuhu’s biggest error was poor logistics and war chest utilization and over-centralization. He could have segmented the state into its 8 federal constituencies with coordinators to handle each.

Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed Binani came to the race with assured votes in her ‘handbag’- women constitute nearly 40% of the delegates.   When Binani entered the voting arena, the entire women among the delegates welcomed her with a melody ( Guda). That was a big signal to her opponents that she was ready for the game. Local empowerment,  smart political calculations, and enormous & clever application of war chest including grassroots base were Binnani’s weapons, and they worked for her. Most of her votes came outside her zone. She found that Abdul Razak Namdas was ‘sleeping’, she chunked away the majority of the Ganye chiefdom votes.

In fact, that zone’s votes were the turning point. She also realized that Former Governor Bindow has underrated them and was carried away by his ‘past glory’- she grabbed good votes that were supposed to go to Bindow. Furthermore, her team realized that Wafari doesn’t know the game and had weak resources- she ‘won over’ a good number of his would-be delegates. Binani didn’t in any way made any attempt at Nuhu Ribadu’s, thus she smartly allowed the Nuhu team to be comfortable in their comfort zone while she carried her operations somewhere else.

Binani has a sweet victory but is coated with a bitter problem. There are allegations of over-voting and financial inducement. The EFCC has already arrested some of the accused while 2 people have been arraigned in a court. If the allegations of overvoting is established-  from the anomaly of accredited voters 1009, while total vote cast was  1011. The APC has no option but to cancel the primaries and organized a new one. The APC guidelines say: “no member shall vote for more than one aspirant, and where the number of votes cast exceeds the number of accredited voters the election shall be declared void”.

If the APC has to conduct a new gubernatorial primary election in the state   – the party has three options; conduct direct primaries, conduct indirect primaries or produce a consensus candidate.   Some pundits are of the view that due to the expensive nature of indirect primaries; some of the contestants may avoid another contest with Binani, secondly if indirect primaries are to be conducted – Binani may attract sympathy votes from many members of the APC and a revolt votes from the women folk. If a consensus candidate is to be carried, and Binani was not chosen, the ticket will come weightless.

 The Adamawa APC gubernatorial primary election was an interesting and unique one- apart from producing a woman as the party’s flag bearer for the 2023 governorship election, the ticket is laden with an intricate legal problem. Furthermore, the result of the contest has sent an important message to the Adamawa people- religious and ethnic politics is just an elites’ thing; the individuals that came first and second are Fulani, while the lone Christian aspirant didn’t secure even a fraction of the votes from delegates who share the same faith with him.

Zayyad I. Muhammad writes from Abuja via zaymohd@yahoo.com.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

The All Progressives Congress, APC, screening committee has disqualified ten aspirants vying for the presidency on the party’s platform. 

The Chairman of the Committee, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, disclosed this on Friday, June 3, 2022, while submitting the committee reports to the ruling party’s Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, in Abuja. 

The names of the affected candidates are yet to be disclosed, but 23 aspirants participated in the screening, and only 13 were reportedly successful. 

The successful candidates are expected to participate in the primary election scheduled to hold between 6 to June 8.

By Nusaiba Ibrahim Na’abba

It is indeed sickening and quite unfortunate to have been part of the Nigerians alive to witness the gruesome killing of Harira and her children and two others in Anambra State. We haven’t even been relieved of tensions that arose from the derogatory remarks on our beloved Rasul SAW. And amid these tensions, another heartless fellow has murdered his niece in Kano – a similar event as Hanifa’s.

Undoubtedly, these seven years since the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari kicked off have been the most unprecedented for many Nigerians. Stressful periods have made killings assume a state of normalcy, especially in the Northern part of the country, and many horrendous activities now don’t even get into the spotlight.

While we continue to deal with post traumas after witnessing more than enough horrifying stories of senseless murders and killings of innocent lives, we continue to fiercely battle financial uncertainties from different angles, coming in distinct shapes and sizes. There has never been a time when we have found ourselves at risk of losing our earnings. From a series of unfounded mobile messages to mysterious calls and emails from strangers, we have been bombarded with multiple ‘Yahoo! or 419’ daily. We think one step to securing our earnings while these ‘intellectuals’ are already a hundred miles ahead. Such is the cruel world we live in a while our leaders wander in a desultory fashion.

To begin with, are the ‘Yahoo intellectuals’. In this context, they have proven beyond any iota of doubt that they are efficient to prosper and have almost always never missed their targets by successfully outsmarting technologies our private financial institutions, alias banks, breaching secured accounts of innocent people in order thieve their hard-earned money – only God knows the kind of cumbersome efforts put in to get them. They are perfectly immune to any countermeasure provided by these banks. Only a few of them are being traced.

The height of this situation will not puzzle you until you hear a bank staff declaring that it is not the bank’s fault but ‘yours’ – the customers’ fault – who exposed your bank details to a ‘Yahoo Pro’ unknowingly. Ideally, banks are supposed to be substitutes for traditional means of saving assets, but the current situation shows that they’re becoming dangerous institutions. Filing a complaint is intensely laborious as your insignificant earnings do not matter so much to the banks. You’d spend hours in a queue to face your worst fear – they can do nothing to help you.

In a recent report published by FJI Nigeria, a student’s $2000 was stuck and only released after their report. Similarly, just on May 8, 2022, the same FJI Nigeria published how a nurse based in Ogun State lost her N95,000 after her ATM card got stuck in the ATM and after her communication with one of the GT bank’s staff. Millions of peoples’ earnings have continued to slip away through untraceable means as banks claim or through multiple deductions from the banks. In some southern states, you could be robbed with a gun when withdrawing cash from an ATM and others adopt POS machines for these fraudulent activities.

There is also another set of dubious humans that use religious covers to decorate their Yahoo strategies. For example, you’d receive calls from unknown fellows claiming to be in good spirits, giving references from the Holy Qur’an and directing you to a strange place where they want you to keep the money for them, and they help you in return. Sounds hilarious, though, but it still happens. Another way they opt for is by sending random text messages about a critical condition of their family member, and they’d threaten you to send a stipulated amount to them or fear the unthinkable happening to you.

Let me highlight that the current wave of rancorous political exchanges in the primary elections is also enshrouded by financial insecurity. We have all vividly seen the disparity in the offers presented to ‘delegates’; it all boils down to ‘money’. Of course, it unveils how deep-seated corruption is in our country, but it also paves the way for us to see that not only the ruled are financially unstable. As the delegates go for the highest bidder, so do the aspirants try to bid the highest amount or withdraw from the race and embrace the likely winner for basically financial and political advantages. For the aspirants, some are very calculative to either invest where they’ll win or save what they’ve pocketed.

I wouldn’t do justice to this discourse without reiterating the kidnap for ransom mishap that continues to flourish without any sign of slowing down. The ‘business’ has now reached a stage of maturity such that Nigerians are challenged to save for unwary expectations indirectly. You may not be directly involved, but your support would be needed when an outrageous amount of money is demanded from a person you know.

The dangerous convergence of economic hardship, lack of political will, and financial insecurity has placed Nigerians grievously. The damage done to widows, orphans, families, workers and students is unimaginable. Assets aren’t safe at home and are neither safe at the banks. And with the continuous devaluation of the Nigerian currency, the means of our sustenance has become an uneasy endeavour.

For now, the government is overwhelmed with so much politicking – divergences, convergences and calculations are taking a toll on virtually everything. So, since the major financial institutions that deal with the exchange of money are private, and the government has proven its incompetency to bring solace to our impediments being at the receiving end, we can offer solid suggestions on how best we can be treated with dignity by these banks.

Securing our dignity and finance at this point means banks must make a move to create codes that we can use to halt the operation of our accounts when necessary. It’s distressing how they have created codes for transfers and recharge card purchases without prioritising securing our accounts. This can be a gigantic step to counter our susceptibility to fraudsters as they are fully aware that their malicious intentions can only be crushed when the damage is done.

Then, it would be worthwhile for the government to equip its legal system to challenge these private financial institutions to ensure sanity in their operations. I firmly believe they aren’t above the law, and nobody is.

Nusaiba Ibrahim Na’abba is a master’s student from the Department of Mass Communication, BUK. She is a freelance writer and researcher. She can be reached via nusaibaibrahim66@gmail.com.

By Aliyu Nuhu

Now I said Tinubu will take the APC ticket. The wait won’t be long but facts on ground support his candidacy. If it is about winning this election, APC can’t make the mistake of destroying the regional alignment that gave it power in 2015. North and Southwest can work together and cruise home to victory.

PDP will not win this election whether Buhari is popular or not. Whether his government failed to deliver on its promises and rubbished Nigeria’s economy and allowed insecurity to exacerbate people’s suffering is also immaterial. Performance is a good requirement but winning Nigeria’s election is not that straightforward because of the kind of voters we have who are largely poor and ignorant.

Democracy flourishes where there is prosperity and enlightenment among the voters. Stomach infrastructure plays a bigger role in Nigeria’s election. I am saying this to underscore the importance of having governors during presidential election. No party with a sitting governor will fail to get at least 25% of the votes of his state.

In this election APC has all the states where the numbers are concentrated and will surely deliver their states to the party. PDP has only four states in the North.

Having federal government is another big booster to APC. Security agencies always work for the government in power. There is also federal resources from CBN and NNPC and what the ministers will bring on the table from their ministries. Even INEC is working hands in gloves with federal government. APC has a big advantage there over PDP.

Some people will argue why PDP lost election in 2015 when it was in power. It was because the PDP broke to pieces before the election with all the important governors leaving the party. Jonathan was stoned in states where PDP had governors. If you don’t have governors that will work for you, forget presidential election. It is impossible to win Nigeria’s election without controlling states.

The danger of PDP relying on South East votes is that there are few voters there despite the region being notorious for voter apathy. Actions of IPOB will also stop people from voting, this is the reason why I say the region is not important in winning election. This a fact not a support for APC.

Atiku has tenaciously been in the race for Nigeria’s president and with his fierce independece and good health he will outperform other candidates. But this is a moment of truth. He is in the losing party and may have to wait for Tinubu to finish his eight year terms, besides the fact that the North cannot rule Nigeria forever. Power has to go to the South this time, and Southwest for that matter.

Last year I wrote on the biological retirement of older northern Nigerians and after 2023 if you add with years to their ages, most of them will either be in their graves or in their late seventies and eighties struggling with health issues.

By Tajuddeen Ahmad Tijjani

Air Marshall Sadiq Abubakar needs the support of the APC faithful and, by extension, the good people of Bauchi State to win the 2023 governorship election.

We hope his victory at the just concluded primary election will be a turning point for uniting the party and mark a positive difference – if God gives him the leadership of our dear State in the 2023 general election.

In terms of competence, yes, he’s indeed equal to the task to salvage the people of Bauchi and impact positively on our lives. 

The unity of our party at this juncture is paramount. Therefore, we call on other contenders and all stakeholders to rally around him in giving a new face to the progress and ideals of the party. It’s the foundation the party is built on. However, the task is not expected to be easy, but repositioning the party and moving Bauchi State forward is the people’s expectation. 

We shall move together to make APC’s success achievable in the forthcoming election. The new bride, who’s versatile and indeed a rare gem, can give us new hope for the betterment of our people.

So let’s rally around this formidable candidate with the capacity to take APC back to Ramat House in 2023, in sha Allah!

Tajuddeen Ahmad Tijjani writes from Galadima Mahmoud street kasuwar kaji Azare.