A group that identifies itself as All Progressives Congress, APC, North-South Patriotic Coalition, ANSPAC, on Thursday stormed the APC National Secretariat in Abuja, in their hundreds, to protest against the possibility of former President Goodluck Jonathan decamping to the party and getting the party’s presidential ticket.
Recall that speculations they Jonathan might be considered to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari has been in the public domain for sometime now, a plot which is being sponsored by some powerful Northern forces within the APC as a way to get power returned to the North after Jonathan’s one-term Presidency.
However, Jonathan is said to insist on being automatically considered for the party’s presidential ticket before he can decamp to the party.
This hasn’t gone down well with many critical stakeholders in the APC, who have been opposed to the move.
Thursday’s protest was led by a founding member of the APC from the South-West, one Alhaji Toyin Raheem, who led almost a thousand party members from across the country to the party’s headquarters to protest the agenda.
A letter of protest was also submitted to the office of the party’s National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, demanding the categorical rejection of the possibility of Jonathan being “imposed” on the party.
The group threatened daily protest, if need be, until they’re certain that the former president wouldn’t be “smuggled through the back door” and imposed as the party’s presidential candidate.
How the party will respond to this latest development is not yet certain; but some party officials who spoke to CompassNG are of the opinion that up till now, there hasn’t been any open opposition to the Jonathan candidacy, but this protest is likely to throw spanners into the plan to bring Jonathan in.
They added that this turn of event is obviously a development not envisaged by the party’s leadership.
The full text of the petition is published below.
04-05-2022
His Excellency,
Abdullahi Adamu,
National Chairman,
All Progressives Congress,
40, Blantyre Crescent, FCT, Abuja.
Sir,
The Destructive Potentials Of A Goodluck Jonathan Presidential Candidacy For The APC
The APC Nort-South Patriotic Coalition, ANSPAC, consists of loyal and committed party members and patriotic Nigerians, mostly concerned about the welfare of APC and its members and the continuity of the party as the ruling party of Nigeria beyond 2023. In our ranks are professionals in various fields, members and officials of the party in our various states.
First, we like to congratulate you for the umpteenth time for your emergence as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Party, APC, at our last national convention. May God bless you with the wisdom and health to pilot the affairs of this party to electoral victory next year.
But for that victory to happen, we have a major concern that must be urgently attended to by the party’s leadership in order to avoid losing power in the next series of election.
The rumour has been around for some time now that former President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was being wooed by some power players within the APC to join the party and fly its presidential ticket for the 2023 election. What began as a mere rumour seems to be gathering momentum so close to the presidential primary of our great party. This Jonathan project cannot fly, simply because it cannot help our party and we want to do our best to ensure that our party does not fall victim of ill-advised action that can push the party out of power.
One of the most telling negative implications of such an action is that the APC does not have anyone of electoral value, who can win election for us except we smuggle in a former president we defeated seven years ago for his glaring incompetence as President.
In the APC today, there are presidential aspirants with credible pedigrees and humongous electoral value and capacity. It is not only unnecessary to smuggle Jonathan into our great party, it is also self-indicting and meaning that our party’s performance in office has been worse than an administration that Nigerians thoroughly rejected and voted APC in 2015. It will also be an indictment against His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, by making Nigerians believe that we lied to them when we said Jonathan performed woefully and that our dear President Buhari would do better. Are we now saying we lied to Nigerians and that we have now discovered that Jonathan was much better and that he should return to continue his good works that nobody can see?
One thing our party’s leaders must know is that if for any tragic reason the mistake is made to impose Jonathan on the APC and the goodwill of our party and that of Mr President make him win and he becomes President again, the likelihood of him switching loyalty to the PDP is high. Already, not a few members of the party are complaining that the APC leadership has been taken over by PDP decampees, now you want to give them the Presidency too? That’s a recipe for a disastrous end of our party and we shall not accept it. We shall do whatever needs to be done to ensure that the Jonathan Project does not happen, because it will sink our party.
It is certain that any attempt to give Jonathan a free presidential ticket of the APC will see the mass exodus of critical stakeholders from the party and make the party lose power. What becomes of those who have been party members from inception, who have laboured to build the APC? What becomes of real APC members who have purchased the presidential nomination form at a whopping One Hundred Million Naira each? What becomes of those who will still declare their presidential ambition and buy the form? It is on good authority that former President Goodluck Jonathan has declared that the only condition that would make him join the APC is if he is assured to get the presidential ticket of APC automatically. This is not going to happen.
Those who are masterminding this project do not have the interest of the party at heart and certainly do not love Nigeria. What sense is in anyone bringing back someone we announced to the whole world that he was a failure and rejected by the overwhelming numbers of Nigerians and then we go back to start romancing him and make him our presidential flag bearer? That’s self-inflicted disaster and political harakiri.
We demand immediate categorical statement from the party’s leadership that such project to import and impose former President Goodluck Jonathan as APC’s presidential candidate is not being contemplated. This demand represents overwhelming majority of opinions in the party across board nationwide. Doing this will bring considerable stability to the party and give assurances to critical stakeholders and the mass of their followers, who are already thinking of option B, should this Jonathan joke be taken too far.
Welcoming Jonathan to APC will damage the party. Attracting Jonathan to APC will scandalize the party. Imposing Jonathan as APC’s presidential candidate will ultimately kill the party.
How do we justify bringing someone we called corrupt, incompetent and clueless back to power through the same party that threw him out power? It doesn’t make any sense at all. It doesn’t take rocket science to know that if Jonathan is helped back to power as president by the APC, he will still rule so badly that Nigerians will have no choice than vote PDP back to power in 2027. Therefore, Jonathan’s main agenda in seeking APC’s presidential ticket is to help his party, the PDP, back to power, no more no less; and it will be disastrous if our party falls into that trap.
Don’t let it happen!
We appeal to our leaders to ensure that this does not happen, because it won’t serve our beloved party any good but certainly programmed to make APC lose power at the center and the current majority control of states. We will intensify these protests, even if it means on a daily basis until a categorical position of the party is made public that there will be no attempt to commit such a historic misjudgment by our party’s leadership.
Kindly address these concerns with the alacrity it requires and douse the dangerous tension this matter is already breeding in our party.
Accept our highest regards.
Yours faithfully
(Signed)
Alhaji Toyin Rahim
Chairman
