The All Progressives Congress, National Stakeholders and the North East Youth Stakeholders Forum have demanded that the position of the Vice Presidential candidate should be zoned to the North East.
The group also said that they have no interest in who becomes the candidate so long as such one is from the North East zone.
Speaking with the media in Abuja on Monday, the leaders of the All Progressives Congress, National Stakeholders, Aliyu Audu said, “Having successfully crossed the hurdle of producing a presidential candidate from the southern region, All Progressives Congress is now faced with yet another important hurdle it must cross before the deadline for the submission of nominations by political parties elapses.
“The bone of contention this time around lies in which of the two dominant faith will produce the Vice Presidential candidate. There have been arguments that Vice Presidential candidate which is primed to come from the north must be of thé ChrIstian faith, while some others have argued that for the APC to stand the chance of winning the 2023 presidential election, the Vice must be a Christian, since the South has already produced a Muslim as the Presidential candidate.
“The APC National Stakeholders is deeply concerned about the raging controversy which has heated the polity in the last few days. Why we are conscious of the fact that religion should not be a determining factor in the our leadership selection process, the peculiar circumstance the nation funds herself calls tor do reflection in the decisions we take, so long as they bother on our national lives
“Today, the country is deeply divided within our fault lines of ethnicity and religion and we cannot afford to jettison this sensibilities in critical decision making. This is why we think that the All Progressives Congress must be guided by the sense of these sensibilities in the selection of the Vice Presidential Candidate of the party. To do otherwise would be to further fuel what divides us and give room for mischief makers to take advantage of our differences.
“Nigeria is in dire need of good governance and this can come from either a Muslim leader or a Christian leader. But in the spirit of nationalism, justice and fairness which the northern governors demonstrated a few days ago, the leaders of the north on whose shoulder the emergence of the Vice Presidential candidate rests must also demonstrate this spirt by ensuring that the candidate comes from the Christian faith. The northern APC has in its fold capable individuals from the Christian faith with proven track record that can deliver just like anyone from the other faith. Their capability to deliver on the ideals of party aside, they also have the capacity to win elections for the party. Suffice to add that no individual wins elections for any political party, it is the collective of all and we are sure the APC can achieve this.
“The APC National Stakeholders therefore call on the APC to narrow her search of the Vice Presidential candidate of the party to a northern Christian whom we have in abundance. Doing this will ensure national inclusion, help to manage our differences and promote national unity.”
In a different briefing, the spokesperson of the North-East APC Youth Stakeholders Forum Haruna Sardauna said, “While appreciating our Party Loyal Members Especially from the NorthWest and North Central Zones, we are appealing for their special consideration of the North-East Zone for the position of the Vice Presidential Candidate.
“The North-East region had been given block votes to the APC and Supported candidate from the other regions right from its Inception. Looking at the current pathetic situation that the region is bedevilled with Insurgency and other social unrest menace. Zoning the position of the Vice President to the North East will neutralizes the PDP Presidential candidate and mobilizes massive support from the region and other Zones to ensure victory of Alh. Ahmed Bola Tinubu.
“We therefore, appealed to our National, State, critical and non-critical stakeholders especially our father President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR), our Candidate Ahmed Bola Tinubu and Senator Abdullahi Adamu led APC National Working Committee to consider our request.”
