Some stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress in the North under the banner of Northern Progressives Union (NPU) have outrightly rejected any attempt by the immediate past Governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Abubakar Badaru to smuggle himself as the ministerial nominee of the party from the northern states.

In a statement signed on behalf of the group by Alhaji Mohammed Ibrahim Kiyawa, the group appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to resist the temptation of appointing any of the immediate past state governors in his soon to be constituted cabinet as a ministerial nominees based on the fact that they are all spent forces, failed politicians and disgruntled so-called leaders who don’t fit into today’s reality of the present vision of the Renewed Hope mantra of the present administration.

“We are the foot soldiers of the APC in this part of the country and therefore making a categorical statement urging Mr. President and the APC as a political party not entertain the idea of nominating any of the former Governors from the region in the incoming cabinet “as they do not have the required capacities and capabilities to drive the process.

“Our demand is legitimate and is consequent upon the misdeeds of some of them during the 2023 general elections where most were moles and fifth columnists used by the opposition parties and in most cases funds given to them for elections were personalized and kept for self-serving purposes”.

“While President Tinubu was mobilizing at all levels, the former Governor seeking ministerial nomination could not deliver votes from his area”.

According to them, Jigawa,
Yobe and Zamfara states can be adjudged among the least politically astute states in the northern Nigeria and thus they are most likely to move in line with the body language of their key leaders that they identify with and not necessarily any other factor.

“In Jigawa State 2023 presidential election, the Hadeijia Emirate consisting of Birniwa, Kirikasamma, Guri, Hadejia, Malam Madori, Kaugama, Auyo and Kafin Hausa local governments, massively voted for APC owing to the fact that one of them was made APC governorship candidate for the first time ever since the creation of the state, the votes were not necessarily due to any funds disbursed by the former Governor. In the first place, the Governor never disbursed any money; the truth is that for some of us on the ground, it was found out that People’s Democratic Party outspent APC, thus the reason for PDP gathering some considerable votes otherwise. It should have been landslide for APC because of the zoning arrangement in favour of the governorship candidate of our great party as stated.

The PDP had a very good show in the Gumel Emirate comprising Gumel, Maigatari, Sule Tankarkar local governments, this again may be due to those places being traditionally PDP apologists and perhaps APC’s non-mobilization of the appropriate resources, the group stated.

“APC did very well in the Ringim Emirate consisting of Ringim, Garki, Taura, Gagarawa owing to the philanthropy of a man called Gerawa who’s arguably the biggest entrepreneur in the state and the biggest investor in the politics of the state”.

“As for Kazaure zone which is the governor’s zone, it was more of even between the two parties, again it may be due to lack of necessary goodwill and lack of appropriate resources. The local governments include: Babura, Kazaure, Gwiwa, Roni, Yankwashi”.

The group posited that Dutse Emirate was majorly PDP owing to it being Sule Lamido’s zone as well as perhaps passing a vote of no confidence on Governor Badaru whom they didn’t really support throughout his tenure. The local government areas include: Dutse, Gwaram, Buji, Kiyawa, Miga, Birnin Kudu and Jahun. PDP won Dutse, Birnin Kudu and Gwaram with wide margins while the places that APC won in the other areas were a slim margin.

“That it amounts to injustice and morally unjustifiable on the part of anyone to smuggle the former governor as the representative of the state in the federal cabinet”.

“We whole-heartedly align with the new policy of Mr. President as announced by Mr. Dele Alake, Special Adviser to the President on Stategy and Communication stating that anyone seeking a federal appointment must attach a copy of his voter’s card and results of his polling unit during the elections.

“We commend such a wonderful criterion in other to checkmate desperate politicians seeking to reap where they did not sow and failed politicians who go about grandstanding without doing anything for their people nor have the support of the grassroots”.

“That it is inconceivable, unimaginable, irreconciliable and unacceptable that in this era of “Renewed Hope” some members of the old order are trying to pollute the agenda with their continued presence in the system when they are supposed to retire and watch from the sidelines for the new and young breed to give Nigerians a new lease of life. There is need to tackle this anomaly and quickly too in the interest of the Nigerian people.

“Therefore, we have resolved to constitute ourselves as the vanguard and agenda setter that would monitor and ensure the new cabinet is devoid of old order syndicate vaunting to use their money to buy their way into the cabinet. We shall resist them for our own good and that of the generation yet unborn.

“We are going to institute a legal action to stop them making to the new cabinet. While it is the turn of the new breed in the block, it is turn of the immediate past class of 2015-2023 Governors, Ministers and other political office holders to take the back seat and allow patriotic citizens with fresh blood and ideas to contribute their own quota in the process of nation building in a government progressive, promising and performing administration geared towards changing the narrative for the betterment of Nigerians and the socio-economic development of the country.