“You cannot sit there in Lagos, for instance, and decide on the fate of APC on zoning,” Buhari said.
The daily emergence of countless support groups across the country pushing Tinubu’s ‘2023 mandate’ may be seen as strategic moves.
President Muhammadu Buhari has trashed talks on zoning of political offices including the presidency, saying no one has the power to decide the fate of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC).
The president expressed this during an interview with Arise TV on Thursday.
“You cannot sit there in Lagos, for instance, and decide on the fate of APC on zoning,” Buhari said.
“Therefore we should allow the party to decide.”
In April, a list had gone viral on social media with the title “APC announces zoning arrangement ahead of 2023 election year.”
The list indicated that the party was said to have zoned the nation’s presidency and senate presidency to the South while its national chairman post was zoned to the North.
Officials of the ruling party, however, denounced the list.
President Buhari stated further that the restructuring of the party has begun and only members of the political party have the power to decide the party’s fate.
“The restructuring of the party has begun from the bottom to the top with the membership card registration,” the president said.
“Every member of the party must be involved.”
He also pointed out that the hope of his administration is to see APC last beyond it.
“We will soon conduct our convention,” Buhari said.
“No single member of the party will be allowed to go against the wish of the party.”
Buhari said the political party is on the right step on knowing how many members it has in each state.
“This administration under APC has achieved a lot,” Buhari said.
“Go look at what was on ground before we came in and now.”
Tinubu’s aspiration
Nigeria’s frontline politician and the National Leader of the ruling APC Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who worked assiduously for the victories of President Buhari in the 2015 and 2019 presidential elections, is widely believed to have intention to take a shot at the Presidency come 2023.
Although he hasn’t officially declared his intention but he was quoted in 2016 to have said: “It depends on the timing; it depends on the environment and what political leadership dictates. I will not brush aside such an aspiration”.
He added: “May be as a senator, may be as a President, you can’t rule it out. How can I rule such a thing out? Opportunity to serve my country? But you only do that when there is a vacancy”.
The daily emergence of countless support groups across the country pushing Tinubu’s ‘2023 mandate’ may be seen as strategic moves.
Some politicians from the southern region of the country have said the ruling party made an unwritten agreement that the presidency would be zone to the south on completion of Buhari’s tenure.
But their northern counterparts, including Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, kicked against the arrangement, insisting all members must be given equal rights to contest
However, the President’s statement on the arrangement may hinder Tinubu’s aspiration should the party eventually canceled the zoning arrangement.
