Northern APC Stakeholders Reject Badaru’s Move to Present Self as Ministerial Nominee

Adedayo Akinwale

Some stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the North, have rejected alleged moves by the immediate-past governor of Jigawa State, Abubakar Badaru to offer himself as a ministerial nominee of the party.

The APC stakeholders, who were members of Northern Progressives Union (NPU), in a statement by Mohammed Ibrahim Kiyawa, kicked against the nomination of Badaru as a ministerial nominee.

To this end, the group called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to resist the temptation of appointing any of the immediate past governors in his soon to be constituted cabinet as a ministerial nominee.

The stakeholders said their decision was based on the fact that ex-governors were all spent forces, failed politicians and disgruntled so-called leaders, who were no longer fit into today’s reality of the present vision of the Renewed Hope mantra of the present administration.

“We are the foot soldiers of the APC in this part of the country and therefore making a categorical statement urging Mr. President and the APC as a political party not entertain the idea of nominating any of the former governors from the region in the incoming cabinet as they do not have the required capacities and capabilities to drive the process.

“Our demand is legitimate and is consequent upon the misdeeds of some of them during the 2023 general election, where most were moles and fifth columnists used by the opposition parties and in most cases funds given to them for elections were personalised and kept for self-serving purposes.

“While President Tinubu was mobilising at all levels, the former governor seeking ministerial nomination could not deliver votes from his area,” he said.

The stakeholders stressed that Jigawa, Yobe and Zamfara States could be adjudged among the least politically astute states in the Northern Nigeria and were most likely to move in line with the body language of their key leaders that they identify with and not necessarily any other factor.