The North-central Quest for APC Presidential Ticket

Nseobong Okon-Ekong writes that Governor Yahaya Bello and Mr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim are leading the charge of the North-central to demand the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress

One of the hottest topics on the Nigerian political scene today is, undoubtedly, who succeeds President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023. While many political pundits have narrowed the search to candidates from either of the two leading political parties; the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), some incurable optimists see the unlikely emergence of a well-loved candidate from one of the political parties positioning itself as the Third Force.

The selection process for a presidential candidate in the APC will particularly be tasking; suggesting that it could prove to be tougher and more tricky than when the different parties collapsed their structures to form the APC in 2013.
The emergence of Buhari, thereafter as the presidential candidate and his subsequent triumph in the 2015 presidential election and reelection in 2019 were easy to manage owing to the towering persona of Mr. President and the respect accorded his office.

Following the sack of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on June 25, 2020 after a protracted leadership tussle and the subsequent inauguration of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the party led by the Governor of Yobe state, Mai Mala Buni, a lot of alliances have been forged within the party ahead of its ational convention.

The Buni CECPC was initially tasked with a six-month assignment which has now been extended for the umpteenth time.However, each passing week renders the inexplicable extension of the CECPC vexatious to many members of the party.

With its ward, local government and state congresses over, all attention is on the impending national convention of the APC, where its national officers will emerge. Depending on which geo-politocal zone of the country, the APC national chairman comes from, the party’s presidential candidate may not come from the same region as the national chairman. This practice, called zoning, even if it is not known to the Nigerian constitution has become an accepted practice among the Nigeria political class.

However, the delineation of this zone is often a subject of controversy. While some politicians see only two zones-north and south, others group the component states in the country into the three major ethnic groups of Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba, Igbo and the Soithern minorities; making four groups. A third grouping of Nigerian states which has become established is the six geopolitical zones; North-central, North-west, North-east, South-west, South-south and South-east.

Going by this grouping the APC may not be looking to the North-west for its choice of presidential candidate, since Buhari is from Katsina, a North-west state. In fact, certain elements within the party would rather the APC does not consider the North at all for its presidential ticket and that is talking about those who see the country purely as a two-sided coin; North and South. But the suggestion for a Nigerian president of Southern extraction to succeed Buhari has become.e a clamour across ethnic and partisan divide. Earlier in the year, the 17 governors from Southern Nigeria met and decided that it will, as a group, push for a Southern president in 2023.

Nothwithstanding, the North-central is making a very strong case; with persuading statistics that the region has never had one of its own serve as elected leader of the country. In the APC, Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has not hidden his intention to take a shot at the presidency. During the revalidation of membership exercise of the APC, Bello worked assiduously to win more converts into the party by taking copious advertisements in the media to sell APC to Nigerians. Apart from the laudable transformation of the Kogi landscape which he is credited with, Bello is said to be the architect of the big gains recorded by the party with the defection of three erstwhile PDP governors to APC.
The Kogi State Governor has become APC’s Poster Boy for youth inclusion in governance. His closeness to Buhari has been touted by some of his admirers as discreet mentorship.

On the other hand, Mr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, a shrewd businessman and grassroots politician is seen as a bridge and consensus builder, who has the natural advantage of multi-ethnic heritage, an early headstart in youth activism and student unionism which catapulted to early international exposure to world leaders and eventually as the First Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the PDP. He has tacitly positioned himself as a strong political force in the North-central.

His recent return to the APC has been described as a homecoming, even by Buni, who told him to consider himself as a foundation member of the party, owing largely to his antecedents, as many with whom he shared political space in the early days of this political dispensation are now in the APC.

But the North-central is as well making a push for the National Chairman of the APC with the the likes of Senator Sani Musa from Niger State, Senator Tanko Al-Makura from Nasarawa State and Saliu Mustapha from Kwara State.

In the coming days, it will be interesting to see how Governor Yahaya Bello and Olawepo-Hashim proceed with their campaign to convince their compatriots to drop the ambition to lead the party, but rather support either of them to clinch the presidential ticket of the APC.