Former Zamfara Governor Abdulaziz Yari said only a fighter who feels the pulse of the people with abundant experience in political battles can lead the party to success in 2023.
He told newsmen in Abuja on Sunday he is such a leader and has what it takes to lead the ruling party to electoral victory in 2023.
Yari, who spoke against the backdrop of an alleged plot to scheme him out of the chairmanship race, maintained he was not disturbed about the speculations.
Sources have alleged some serving or former Governors in the Northwest may be involved in a scheme to jeopardise his chairmanship aspiration so one of them becomes either President or Vice President in 2023.
Reacting to the speculation, Yari said: “Somebody told me that some of my colleagues and former colleagues are interested in the number one and number two slots, so if the National Chairmanship seat goes to the North West, nothing will get to them, so they ganged up to neutralize Yari.
“If God decides that it should be, it is going to be. People can maneuver and do all sorts of calculations but they will not prevail.
“All I know is this, I can lead this party and they know what I can do.”
On APC chances in 2023, the former Zamfara Governor predicted that despite the inability of the party to accomplish all the objectives in its progressive manifesto “APC has abundant chances of winning the 2023 elections in a very remarkable way.”
But he cautioned the party’s victory is achievable “if the right things are done between now and next year.”
He stressed one of the right things that APC needs to do is to enable a people-focused party stalwart like him to repeat past electoral successes that he has accomplished even before the beginning of the current democratic dispensation.
Presenting the political credentials that qualify him for the party’s highest office, Yari recalled his roles during the Abacha era and in the formation of the defunct All Peoples Party (APP), which made him its State Secretary as well as director-General of governorship and presidential campaigns to actualize massive electoral victories in Zamfara state.
The chairmanship hopeful dismissed various corruption allegations against him as mere political dirts from faceless persons.
According to him: “Some persons can fabricate lies but at the end of the day, the truth will prevail. There are so many other things they have said that are a mere tissue of lies meant to try to get a good man down but they will never succeed.”
THE NATION
