Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule recently shed light on why the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors in the North opposed power retention in the region after the administration of President Mohammadu Buhari.
He also clarified that no governor from the North took money to back a Southern presidential candidate.
Sule spoke in Lafia, the state capital, during a meeting with all his political appointees at the Government House.
He explained that some Northern APC governors stood up against earlier moves to produce a northerner as a presidential candidate after they sought the opinion of the party leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, who said he was only interested in a democratic process that will produce an acceptable candidate.
Sule said: “As governors, they were not carried along that the Northern part of the country is trying to present a candidate who is going to be the presidential candidate.
“And we said, we were not carried along. A few of the governors got together and said it’s time for us to speak up so that we will not be taken for granted. We said let’s go and speak to our leader because Mr President is the leader of the party. He is somebody we respect. Sometimes, he will say certain things, even if we don’t like it, because he is the leader and that’s what he wants, we follow.”
Sule pointed out that Northern governors defended their position because they wanted to save the North, as according to them, after contesting for the seat of the president three times, President Muhammadu Buhari only got elected into office after the South entered into an alliance with the North.
He added: “We don’t want the Northern part of the country to be seen as people who don’t keep promises. We want to protect the image of the North. We want the North to be seen as a region that can make sacrifices also for other parts of the country. And we believe in fairness. And we believe this position should rotate to the South, irrespective of who emerges. Let the people in the South be democratic.”
The governor denied that any of his colleagues from the North was given money to support zoning to the South.
Sule added that though not everyone was in support of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s candidature from the beginning, a fact that led to the plethora of other presidential aspirants, as soon as he emerged as the candidate, everybody is now working for Tinubu as a family.
Commenting on the fallout of the recently concluded party primaries, the governor said his administration has set in motion machinery to reconcile aggrieved party members. He assured that at the national level, efforts are being put in place to appease members who felt hurt by the outcome of the shadow polls across the country.
He urged his political appointees to mobilise voters in their various communities to take advantage of the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and register.
Sule queried: “Majority of you have not even gone to your communities to ensure that this CVR is carried out. It’s left in the hands of very few people working hard to do it. Where are you going to get the voters if you are not doing CVR?”
Sule said a committee will produce a strategy that will be made available to the appointees in ensuring victory for the presidential candidate and other candidates.
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