From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, Youths Leader, Barr Ismaeel Ahmed, has admitted that the ruling party will struggle to win the 2023 presidential election without President Muhammadu Buhari on the ballot box.
Speaking during the inauguration of Committees for the forthcoming APC National Youth summit at the party’s secretariat in Abuja, he said that his absence means that APC will scarth to get the 10 million votes President Buhari usually give the party.
“I keep saying it that 2023 is going to be a battle for the young people, as it has been clearly demonstrated and I say it every time that the President Muhammadu Buhari always come to the table with ten million votes in every election he has participated in.
“But for the first time in twenty years, in 2023 President Buhari will not be on the ballot, and because he will not be on the ballot; which means we have to go scarting for those ten million votes elsewhere.
“At best if the President is giving us some of his supporters, which he as a bonafide member of the party will do, the best we can look for is probably 50 per cent of those 10 million votes. Which means we have to go scarting for other five million votes elsewhere. Those five million votes are with the young people wnd women,” he said.
Arguing that the future of the party depends on the party, Ismaeel said: “In 2023 young people are going to demand what is it that you are going to do for us? They need to know that they have a table, a seat and the decision making table or else forget it. They will go to the person that will give them that hope.
“So we need as young progressives to institutionalised the ideal of being a progressive, because if they say you are an APC member, you should just be more than a card carrying member.
“Some of you whose parents or older brothers participated in politics in the second or the first Republic, can still tell you till today that I am NEPU or PRP. Why because it was an idea which is not an elitist idea, it is something that run all through to the grassroot.
“So being a progressive should mean something. Young people need to come together and see, this is what we are deciding for ourselves. We are going to make sure that it survives, and how we do that is by coming together and make the road map of what we expect and what is it to be a progressive, so that we can draw other young people into this movement and grow it as well and we can deliver the party and deliver the country both in 2023 and beyond.
“It is on this premise that we have decided to organize the first ever National Progressives Youth Conference and you all have been chosen to deliver the best and most impactive conference.
“I recognize that it is a huge responsibility but equally persuaded that the crop of progressives and outstanding young men and women in this team as all it takes to deliver beyond expectation,” he noted.