Sen Tanko Al-Makura
Ahead of the March 26 National Convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Forum of defunct Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) stakeholders has endorsed the chairmanship aspirations of the former Governor of Nasarawa State, Sen. Tanko Al-Makura.
The stakeholders insisted that the next national chairman of APC must come from one of the legacy parties that coalesced to form APC.
The APC was formed on the 31st July 2013 following the merger of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN); All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), (CPC); splinter group of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA); splinter group of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) and the New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP).
The National Coordinator of the group, and former Senior Special Assistant to the President on Prosecutions, Mr. Okoi Obono-Obla, while addressing a press conference yesterday in Abuja said it was the turn of the CPC bloc to produce the next national chairman of the party.
He said: “We categorically demand that a member of one of the legacy parties that came together to form the APC, be the next national chairman of APC.”
The forum explained that its support for Al-Makura was not out of emotion, sentiments, or primordial grounds, but believed that in this period he was the most qualified of all those who have shown interest to lead the party because of who he is.
The forum lamented that the ruling party has derailed from the dreams of its founding fathers because of the failure of leadership.
It added that if something was not done, the party may lose the next general election.
The forum noted that the party has floundered to the extent that there was an almost total breakdown of law, order, discipline, and cohesion – all ingredients that are fundamental for the success of every political party that wants to win the election.
It said: “There is chaos in the party that has manifested glaringly in its inability to conduct a national convention for two years or more.”
The forum stressed that the lack of leadership of these past years has seen the fortunes of the party nose-dive to the extent that three months to the primaries for nomination of candidates for the 2023 general election, there was no National Working Committee that would issue guidelines for the conduct of primaries.
It added: “In this wise, we collectively endorse the aspirations of Senator Umaru Tanko Almakura to become the next National Chairman of APC.”
It insisted that Almakura is an embodiment of the finest values and leadership capabilities, adding that he would return APC to its original focus of championing genuine progressive change in Nigeria.
