Igbawase Ukumba reports that Nasarawa State is ready to support Senator Umaru Tanko Al-Makura in his journey to contest the All Progressives Congress national chairmanship
On October 4, 2021 in Lafia, to the elation of his teaming supporters, Senator Umaru Tanko Al-Makura made a solemn declaration, unequivocally throwing his hat in the ring as he expressed in very clear terms his decision to vie for the exalted position of the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Al-Makura said during the declaration that his desire to campaign for the national chairmanship of the APC was borne out of his conviction to safeguard the good tenets of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
Making his desire to vie for the exalted position of the APC national chairman public in Lafia, Al-Makura said: “Today, I take this opportunity to make a declaration about my aspiration to contest for the office of the APC national chairman in the coming convention. I consider this important because this is my base. This is my Local Government Area where my ward and even the zonal headquarters are. This is where my umbilical cord that gave rise to my political aspiration lies.
“I, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, wish to contest for the position of APC chairman. I am doing this to ensure cohesion, party unity. To ensure that those values and attributes that came with the emergence of the legacy parties have been kept alive.”
The erstwhile Nasarawa State governor was optimistic that he knows as a matter of fact that he was one of those who participated in the merger exercise that Nigerians have shown unity and commitment to national harmony, to inclusiveness, to Nigeria politics. He maintained that the reason all the legacy parties abandoned their tendencies of ACN in the South-west, APGA in the East, ANPP in the North, and CPC in the North.
“But because of our quest, desire to ensure unity of purpose, direction, focus and vision for every Nigerian, we came together to form APC, and abandoned all those premodial sentiments. I believe at this material time that people who should manage the affairs of this party are people who know where the party was coming from, where the party is going. I can assure you if I become the national chairman, I will ensure equity, fairness, justice and ensure that those of our supporters who joined the party; even if it is today, they are given a sense of belonging and participation,” Al-Makura maintained.
Perhaps, it was against this backdrop that, when interacting with select journalists recently in the Goverment House, Lafia, Governor Abdullahi Sule said he had since commenced campaign across the country on the desire of the erstwhile governor to contest the national chairmanship of the APC.
“I think we have gone beyond advice now. So, now we are campaigning. I have been encountering with major stakeholders in the APC that we strongly believe that what we are asking for is fair. What we are asking for is not too much for the party to do. What we are asking for will actually keep the party together. So that is what we have been saying.
“I have gone far beyond just making a plea. I have gone to the stage of making consultations, speaking with the right people who are supposed to be part of this. Speaking with all the decision makers. Speaking with the highest authority of the party, especially speaking with my colleagues; the governors. I have been trying everything to ensure that we plead for this position to come to Nasarawa State,” Governor Sule disclosed during the interactive session with the journalists.
Apart from agitations that the APC national chairmanship position should go to Nasarawa State, the Nasarawa governor said the Congress for Progressives Change (CPC); one of the independent political parties that birthed the APC, was agitating that the position of the APC national chairman be zoned to the North-central before coming to Nasarawa State.
Sule continued: “I am going on the full swing. I don’t want to go half and stop. I am saying that I strongly believe it should come to North-central, and Nasarawa State; I always add that. I don’t want to stop at coming to North-central without mentioning Nasarawa State, because that is why I said I am going full swing. And we have justification for that. We are not just saying that for the sake of saying it.
“APC is actually a product of an alliance. An alliance between three former independent political parties. The ACN, ANPP and the CPC. The two former members of the alliance have all produced the national chairman of the party twice. But the only one that has not produced so far is the CPC. And if you are talking of the CPC, Nasarawa State is the only state with the CPC that went into the alliance. So, that is the justification that we have.
“But I don’t want to just stop at that. I keep saying let it come to Nasarawa State because I don’t want people to feel that the person I am looking for the position for, may be because of one reason or the other, is not the right person. So, let it come to Nasarawa State. Give us in Nasarawa State.”
The Nasarawa governor maintained that Nigerians have to be fair to CPC first, and then Nasarawa because it was the only state that joined the alliance. He added that when the chairmanship position comes to CPC, Nasarawa would look for it.
“But Right now, I think we have gone out full swing; we are campaigning for people. We want people like Tanko Al-Makura to take it. And we are not hiding it,” Sule re-echoed.
The speaker of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly, Ibrahim Balarabe Abdullahi, expressed optimism that the APC will reclaim states of the federation it lost to the opposition only if Senator Al-Makura gets the national chairmanship position of the party during the forth coming national convention.
The Nasarawa Assembly speaker expressed his optimism of APC reclaiming the lost states under the watch of Al-Makura in Lafia at an event endorsing senator for the national championship position of the APC which was organised by a political group, Progressives for Umaru Tanko Al-Makura (PUTA). The Nasarawa speaker, who was represented at the endorsement ceremony by the Majority Leader of the Nasarawa House of Assembly, Umar Tanko Tunga, reminded everyone that Senator Al-Makura had won his governorship contest in 2011 on the platform of the CPC; a political party that at that time had no single councillorship seat in the country.
“It was CPC that produced Senator Al–Makura in 2011; a new party at that time that had no structure on ground. It was that Al-Makura’s CPC that merged with other political parties to form the APC that won the presidential election in 2015. If Al–Makura is elected as the national chairman of the APC, the APC will take over the whole country in future elections,” Speaker Abdullahi insisted.
Abdullahi, therefore, assured Senator Al-Makura of the Nasarawa lawmakers’ support at all times to enable him succeed in his political aspiration. He also urged Nigerians to support the aspiration of Al-Makura to lead the party and take it to greater heights, even as the speaker also called on Nigerians to continue to support the APC government at all levels to succeed.
To a political group, Progressives for Umaru Tanko Al-Makura (PUTA), the declaration of Al-Makura to contest for the national championship seat of the APC was, no doubt, in tandem with the group’s clarion call and several other similar calls across the length and breadth of the country, directed at the senator.
The group said the declaration of Al-Makura, popularly referred to as “The Lafia Declaration”, like a thunderbolt, shook the political landscape of the country, particularly the North-central geopolitical zone and his home state of Nasarawa. PUTA continued that “consequently, critical stakeholders, opinion moulders, party leaders and indeed the entire APC family in the state received the declaration with untold excitement.
Addressing a mammoth crowd that thronged the Ta’al Conference Hotel, Lafia to witness the endorsement of Al-Makura for the national championship seat by critical stakeholders in the state on November 8, 2021, the convener of PUTA, Hon. Makpa Malla, said the PUTA strongly believes that the unanimous and very positive reception for Al-Makura by party stalwarts in the state was not unconnected with his (Al-Makura’s) love for the APC, “a party he midwifed, nurtured and strengthened, right from the days of the CPC, into the merger that culminated in the formation of the APC and afterwards as Executive Governor and Distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic.”
Malla explained: “The purpose of this gathering of the cream of Nasarawa state’s politics and indeed the APC family, is to openly endorse whole heartedly, the candidature of Distinguish Senator Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, for the position of the national chairman of the rulling party in Nigeria, APC. This step we are taking today is aimed at leaving no one in doubt, anywhere in the country, that Nasarawa state is rock-solid and adamantly poised at standing by her very worthy son through this journey towards the Extra-ordinary national convention of the party as a national chairmanship contender.
“We believe that this step taken today would pave the way for the eventual emergence of an Al-Makura national chairmanship of our party. By this endorsement, the entire APC family in the state hereby express its utmost support and throws it’s full weight behind the aspiration of Distinguish Senator Umaru Tanko Al-Makura (Sarduanan Gwandara).”
The PUTA convener concluded that the world would clearly see that various party leaders and stalwarts ranging from representatives of the State Working Committee, Local Government Working Committees, ward officials from across the entire state, serving and former office holders, elder statesmen and sundry party leaders as well as supporters, were gathered at the Ta’al Conference Hotel, Lafia in full support of the endorsement.
QUOTE
Senator Al-Makura had won his governorship contest in 2011 on the platform of the CPC; a political party that at that time had no single councillorship seat in the country. It was CPC that produced Senator Al–Makura in 2011; a new party at that time that had no structure on ground. It was that Al-Makura’s CPC that merged with other political parties to form the APC that won the presidential election in 2015. If Al–Makura is elected as the national chairman of the APC, the APC will take over the whole country in future elections
