By Muhammad Abdullahi, Abuja
More confusion may be brewing around the National Chairmanship seat and the Convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress ( APC), as Northern youths group on Friday rejected the purported Presidential endorsement for any Chairmanship candidate, insisting that Tanko Al-Makura must not be shut out of the contest.
The group, under the aegis of Alliance of Northern Progressive Youth (ANPY) during a Press conference in Abuja said the leadership of APC must distance itself from all the sinister plots to smuggle in any candidate that will further cause disintegration in the party.
Amina Wakawa, the Director, Gender and Governance, Alliance of Northern Progressive Youths, 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.
She noted that it would be a great injustice, to endorse someone who was not among the blocs that laboured to form the ruling party , as its chairman, while shutting out Al-Makura who was part of the forces that worked for the merger that produced APC.
Wakawa who stated that 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.
It was disclosed that the group has mobilized party loyalists, especially the youths in the North to oppose such bizarre act of injustice .
She said, ” 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 were prepared to resist any for of imposition of leaders at all levels of the party.