Mustapha: APC Must Respect Pact for Southern President in 2023

By Chuks Okocha

A national chairmanship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji MB Mustapha, yesterday urged critical stakeholders of the party to uphold the sanctity of the pre-merger agreement by party leaders to rotate both the presidency and party chairmanship between the North and the South.

Mustapha, whose campaign train berthed in Lagos, told reporters that the honourable thing for APC was to keep to the agreement.

He said: “There was an agreement for the presidency and the party leadership to rotate between the North and the South. Zoning must be strictly adhered to as it is honourable to keep to the agreement.

“The presidency should go to the South and the national chairmanship of the party should go to the North.”

Mustapha stated that if elected as APC national chairman, he will focus on promoting the inclusion of youths and women in decision making and ensure that they are allowed to play prominent roles in government.

“The youths, with over 60 per cent the voting population and Nigeria’s population, must dictate who becomes the president in 2023. The elders should step aside; and this should cut across all political parties,” he added.

According to him, one of his main agenda is to enthrone party discipline, promote internal democracy, supremacy of the party and gender equality, by carrying women along in party affairs.

Responding to questions on how he would help the party to foster national unity, he said every part of the country must be given a sense of belonging by ensuring equitable distribution of resources and reflecting federal character in political appointments.

He added that equity, fairness and justice are the only ways the APC can survive beyond 2023.