APC Wants To Zone Presidency To South – El-Rufai
Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria, News From The State Friday, February 25th, 2022
(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, on Thursday in Abuja stated that he was not having any ambition in 2023 and he would support any candidate who comes up from APC wants to zone the presidency to South – El-Rufai
Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, on Thursday in Abuja stated that he was not having any ambition in 2023 and he would support any candidate who comes up from the zoning arrangement, be it from the South.
El-Rufai made this known during the weekly ministerial press briefing organized by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The governor, kicked against the increase of abductions and other security challenges in the country, Kaduna stated that the Kaduna State government has invested heavily in security.
Fielding questions from State House correspondents, he said, “I have zero ambition. I just want to finish this job, get on with my private life, write another book and make tons of money. The largest amount of money I ever got in my life was from writing the book, ‘Accidental Public Servant’. I have no ambition; I’ve never had any ambition. And if I die today, I am quite accomplished and happy, because I never in my life, based on my humble background, ever thought I would even enter this building.
“God has been very kind to me. And my outings in the public service have all been satisfactory? Why push my luck and go for a job with a 90 percent chance of failure? So, I’m not an ambitious person. I’m just a person that gets things done when given the opportunity. I’ve never desired to run even for this governorship. It was President Buhari who literally forced me to run. He insisted that some of us run for governorship just in case he did not get elected again. He felt that we needed some ‘strong governance’. Those were the words he used. So, I have no aspirations.”
Speaking about the zoning of political positions within the All Progressives Congress, Governor El-Rufai stated that he joined the Progressive Governors’ Forum on a visit to President Muhammadu Buhari to talk on the party’s convention and other issues.
He said, “I want to clarify that the APC zoning arrangement that we announced is the zoning arrangement for the party. And we’ve always done that in the last three elections we’ve had. When we elected John Oyegun as chairman, we had this zoning arrangement; each zone will have these positions and so on. And we carried that to the time when Adams Oshiomhole assumed office as chairman.
“All we did now is to flip it. Since the chairman is going to be from the North-Central, it means that the North-Central will take all the positions of the South-South. If you check, you will see all the positions allocated to the North-Central were positions held by the South-South under Oyegun and Oshiomhole.
“All the positions held by the North-West went to the South-East and vice versa. All the positions held by the North-East went to the South-West and vice versa. That’s why the South-West will now produce the national secretary; the national secretary under Oyegun and Oshiomhole was Mai Mala Buni. So, that’s all we did.
“We are not talking about the Presidency yet. When we do this convention, we’ll elect national officers; then, we will start preparing for the primaries that will produce our candidates for the House of Reps, Senate, and the Presidency. That’s when this conversation will take place.”
He stated that the zoning arrangement presented to Buhari on Tuesday, which he approved, was “only sending a signal about the party’s direction”.
“It is not zoning any presidency to anyone yet. But we’ve sent a signal,” he said.
Speaking on if he would support a candidate from the South-West, the former Federal Capital Territory minister said, “I will support any APC candidate if I’m satisfied that he will do the best for Nigeria. It doesn’t matter whether he’s from the South-West, South-East, or South-South; the APC is what matters and the quality of the person.
“The discussion we are having is that the Presidency is zoned to the South. It’s not zoned to any particular place in the South. The South will have the first go at it. But we’re waiting to see who the aspirants are.” he zoning arrangement, be it from the South.
El-Rufai made this known during the weekly ministerial press briefing organized by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The governor, kicked against the increase of abductions and other security challenges in the country, Kaduna stated that the Kaduna State government has invested heavily in security.
Fielding questions from State House correspondents, he said, “I have zero ambition. I just want to finish this job, get on with my private life, write another book and make tonnes of money. The largest amount of money I ever got in my life was from writing the book, ‘Accidental Public Servant’. I have no ambition; I’ve never had any ambition. And if I die today, I am quite accomplished and happy, because I never in my life, based on my humble background, ever thought I would even enter this building.
“God has been very kind to me. And my outings in the public service have all been satisfactory? Why push my luck and go for a job with a 90 percent chance of failure? So, I’m not an ambitious person. I’m just a person that gets things done when given the opportunity. I’ve never desired to run even for this governorship. It was President Buhari who literally forced me to run. He insisted that some of us run for governorship just in case he did not get elected again. He felt that we needed some ‘strong governance’. Those were the words he used. So, I have no aspirations.”
Speaking about the zoning of political positions within the All Progressives Congress, Governor El-Rufai stated that he joined the Progressive Governors’ Forum on a visit to the Presiden Muhammadu Buhari to talk on the party’s convention and other issues.
He said, “I want to clarify that the APC zoning arrangement that we announced is the zoning arrangement for the party. And we’ve always done that in the last three elections we’ve had. When we elected John Oyegun as chairman, we had this zoning arrangement; each zone will have these positions and so on. And we carried that to the time when Adams Oshiomhole assumed office as chairman.
“All we did now is to flip it. Since the chairman is going to be from the North-Central, it means that the North-Central will take all the positions of the South-South. If you check, you will see all the positions allocated to the North-Central were positions held by the South-South under Oyegun and Oshiomhole.
“All the positions held by the North-West went to the South-East and vice versa. All the positions held by the North-East went to the South-West and vice versa. That’s why the South-West will now produce the national secretary; the national secretary under Oyegun and Oshiomhole was Mai Mala Buni. So, that’s all we did.
We are not talking about the Presidency yet. When we do this convention, we’ll elect national officers; then, we will start preparing for the primaries that will produce our candidates for the House of Reps, Senate and the Presidency. That’s when this conversation will take place.”
He stated that the zoning arrangement presented to Buhari on Tuesday, which he approved, was “only sending a signal about the party’s direction”.
“It is not zoning any presidency to anyone yet. But we’ve sent a signal,” he said.
Speaking on if he would support a candidate from the South-West, the former Federal Capital Territory minister said, “I will support any APC candidate if I’m satisfied that he will do the best for Nigeria. It doesn’t matter whether he’s from the South-West, South-East or South-South; the APC is what matters and the quality of the person.
“The discussion we are having is that the Presidency is zoned to the South. It’s not zoned to any particular place in the South. The South will have the first go at it. But we’re waiting to see who the aspirants are.”
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