From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu, has said there will be “no retreat no surrender” regarding the decision of the party to settle for same-faith candidates in the 2023 presidential election.
There has been public outcry, especially from the Christian community, since the emergence of Ahmed Tinubu and Kashim Shettima as the party’s presidential and vice presidential candidates, respectively, for next year’s election.
In an interview with BBC Hausa Service that was aired Thursday morning, Adamu said the decision to field a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket is the only way the party can win the presidential election in 2023.
He expressed fears that though some people within the party are unhappy and might want to sabotage the effort of the party to come out victorious, the party has all it takes to retain political power at the federal level.
“Whatever actions we took were in the best interest of the party, and it’s what we believe will guarantee our success in the forthcoming general elections, and by the Grace of God, we would be victorious at all levels. However, we can’t satisfy everybody and there are people who would disagree with the decisions of the party, perhaps, because it didn’t favour them. But some of them have made up their minds on the party to sabotage our efforts from within,” the party leader stated.
“These people take pleasure in destroying what we are building. However, we won’t have rest until we are done with the election and are victorious. Many people are speaking ill of our same-faith ticket but there’s nothing we can do about that. That’s the situation we have found ourselves and the will of God. But remember that whatever you do, people would still complain and lament. Millions of our party members are in support of the same-faith ticket, so we are sure of success in the forthcoming general elections.”
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Asked about what the party will sell to Nigerians given the “collapsed” state of economy, insecurity and other promises they failed to fulfil, the APC National said, “when the time comes, we would talk to Nigerians and convince them to queue behind our party. At this point in time, the same-faith ticket is only our guarantee of success and we are optimistic that we will succeed.
“Undoubtedly, there are economic problems in Nigeria, but it’s not peculiar to Nigeria alone. Similarly, insecurity is a big challenge and everybody is feeling it badly. But aside from that, there are lots of achievements and landmark successes recorded under this administration. But unfortunately, relevant government agencies are not doing enough in telling Nigerians that much government have been done to uplift the standard of living for Nigerians. People need to know that.”
He pleaded with aggrieved members of the party who may be unhappy with the outcome of the primary elections of the party to shield their sword and support the party to achieve success which, he said, is the most important thing now.
He assured the aggrieved members that the party structure is handling the internal grievances very well, with the hope that before the elections, the issue would be resolved and the aggrieved members would be pacified so the party can go into the elections united and stronger.
Adamu declined to comment on the issues of nomination with regards to Senate President Ahmed Lawan and the former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio.
“I can assure you that APC will not lose the seat as being predicted by our foes. However, I can’t say more than this now because the matter is in court,” he said.