Majority Of APC Northern Govs Are Not With Tinubu-AYCF President
LAGOS JANUARY 22ND (NEWSRANGERS)-The National President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Yerima Shettima, has said that the majority of the 19 northern governors are not with the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, insisting that he has evidence to back his claim and will expose the governors involved very soon.
Speaking in an interview with the Tribune newspaper, Shettima said:
“I have evidence on the activities of APC governors who are romancing the PDP and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar. Very soon, I will expose them.”
The AYCF National President expressed his disappointment at the disposition of the governors to the Tinubu candidacy and campaign despite the sacrifices that the former Governor of Lagos State made to ensure Buhari’s election in 2015 in mobilizing the support of Southwest for him.
He said: “In the build-up to the 2015 general election, we saw how Bola Ahmed Tinubu influenced the Southwest governors and their stakeholders to support President Buhari.
“In the rundown to the election, Tinubu gave them 100 percent support. We could see how he, against all odds, made sacrifices for them (governors) and other officeholders to emerge as candidates and subsequently win elections in their respective states. But the way things are going now, they are not giving him the same support.”
Shettima pointed out that the governor’s lack of total support for Tinubu was evident two weeks ago in an event in Lagos organized by northerners residing in the State and other Southwest States to endorse Tinubu. According to him, he was a special guest of honour at the event and came to realize that no northern APC governor contributed a dime to its organization.
He said:
“At the gathering, I came to learn that no kobo was contributed by any governor from the North. Rather, the event was singlehandedly sponsored by the Northern- ers and the traditional rulers residing in the South-West to make the event a success.
“Only the Kano State governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, demonstrated love for Tinubu by attending the event. Even his Director General, the governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, was not there. The question I asked was: why are we not seeing the commitment of these governors?”
Shettima also extended the blame to President Muhammadu Buhari, wondering why he is not throwing his weight around for the APC candidate.
He said: “Even the president, we have only seen him in a few places. He is not making his presence felt in the campaigns. What is going wrong? If they are not committed, why did they allow him (Tinubu) to get the ticket in the first place? I think something is fishy.”
The AYCF leader then advised Tinubu not to rely on the support of the governors because, according to him, most of them have failed their people and cannot go back and talk to them about the direction to follow.
Shettima’s concerns appear very germane as feelers indicate that key northern leaders, irrespective of the political divides, are gravitating towards the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in their bid to ensure that the North retains power in 2023.
The newspaper learned that it was for this realization that the vice presidential candidate of the APC has been visiting key stakeholders in the North, especially traditional rulers, to gain their confidence in the Tinubu-Shettima ticket.
What is your take on this? Do you think that the northerners are playing games with Tinubu as Shettima suggests?
Source: Tribune newspaper
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Posted by News Rangers
on Jan 22 2023. Filed under National.
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