APC National Chairman: Niger Working towards Consensus Candidate

Laleye Dipo in Minna

With the February 26 date for the National Convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) drawing near, the Niger State chapter of the party has said that it is working towards having a consensus candidate to contest the position.

This is just as the party’s Reconciliation Committee has indicted the national local government congress committees for violating laid down procedures thereby creating crisis within the party.

The state chairman of the party, Alhaji Haliru Jikantoro, said in Minna on Wednesday after receiving the report of the reconciliation committees, which he set up after his election last year, that the number of aspirants for the chairmanship position from the state are too many and can be counterproductive.

At the last count, there are three aspirants from the state — Senator Sani Musa, Alhaji Saidu Etsu and Alhaji Abubakar Bawa Bwari.

“We are looking at the consensus option. We hope we will achieve this before the February 26 date for the national convention,” Jikantoro told newsmen at the party’s secretariat.

He added that the major interest of the state is to ensure that someone from the state becomes the national chairman of the party, adding that that is what the party is working to achieve.

He however declined to say who the favoured aspirant from the state is but said: “They are all our members and we will work for anyone we agree to fly our flag.”

Commenting on the report of the committee, Jikantoro said the panel has done a good job “and we have started seeing the results of their job”.

The APC chieftain promised that all aspects of the report will be looked into and implemented, adding that with everyone on board, the party is sure of victory in the 2023 general electron.

The Chairman of the Reconciliation Committee and former Chief Whip of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Abubakar Bawa Bwari, in his report, indicted the Local Government Congresses committees for disregarding laid down protocol in the discharge of their duties which caused the many crises in the state chapter of the party.

Bwari said the committee discovered that the national congress committees abandoned the list generated from the local governments and opted for the ones given to them by “unknown persons” in Abuja which the stakeholders rejected in their totality causing the crises.

According to Bwari, a former minister, the national local government congresses committees ought to adopt “the bottom up approach” but preferred the “top to bottom option”, which caused crisis, adding that the issue of godfatherism also played prominent role in the crisis.

He however said that apart from two local governments, the reconciliation committee was able to reconcile all the aggrieved party members including the faction led by the former state chairman of the party, Ahaji Jibrin Imam, adding that some of the court cases are already being withdrawn in line with the peace agreement reached with the feuding members.

Bwari, in answer to a question from newsmen, confirmed his interest in becoming the national chairman of the APC, but when asked about the issue of consensus, he was evasive, saying it is God that gives and take positions as He wishes.