Stakeholders of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in the north, under the aegis of Northern Progressives Union, NPU, have asked President Bola Tinubu to resist the temptation of appointing any of the immediate past northern governor as a minister in his cabinet.
They particularly zeroed in on the former Jigawa State governor, Mohammed Badaru.
The stakeholders in a statement signed on their behalf by Mohammed Kiyawa, yesterday, said the group is making the plea based on the fact that the former governors were all spent forces, failed politicians and disgruntled leaders, who do not fit into today’s reality of the present vision of the Renewed Hope mantra of the present administration.
The statement read: “We are the foot soldiers of the APC in this part of the country and, therefore, making a categorical statement urging Mr President and the APC as a political party not to entertain the idea of nominating any of the former governors from the region in the incoming cabinet as they do not have the required capacity and capability to drive the process.
“Our demand is legitimate and is consequent upon the misdeeds of some of them during the 2023 general elections where most were moles and fifth columnists used by the opposition parties and in most cases, funds given to them for elections were not touched.
“While President Tinubu was mobilising at all levels, the former governor seeking ministerial nomination could not deliver votes from his area.”
According to the stakeholders, Jigawa, Yobe and Zamfara states can be adjudged among the least politically astute states in northern Nigeria and were most likely to move in line with the body language of their key leaders they identified with and not necessarily any other factor.
They said: “In Jigawa State 2023 presidential election, the Hadejia Emirate, consisting Birniwa, Kirikasamma, Guri, Hadejia, Malam Madori, Kaugama, Auyo and Kafin Hausa local governments, massively voted for APC owing to the fact that one of them was made APC governorship candidate for the first time ever since the creation of the state.
‘’The votes were not necessarily due to any funds disbursed by the former governor. In the first place, the governor never disbursed any money; the truth is that for some of us on the ground, it was found that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, outspent APC, hence the reason PDP got considerable votes.
“Otherwise, it should have been a landslide for APC because of the zoning arrangement in favour of the governorship candidate of our great party as stated.
“The PDP had a very good showing in Gumel Emirate, comprising Gumel, Maigatari, Sule Tankarkar local governments.
“This again may be due to those places being traditionally PDP apologists and perhaps APC’s non-mobilization of the appropriate resources.
“APC did very well in the Ringim Emirate, consisting Ringim, Garki, Taura, Gagarawa owing to the philanthropy of a man called Gerawa, who is arguably the biggest entrepreneur in the state and the biggest investor in the politics of the state.”
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