President Muhammadu Buhari has said no individual member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has the authority to dictate the party’s zoning formula for the 2023 general elections.
“You cannot sit here in Lagos, for instance, and decide on the fate of APC on zoning,” Buhari stated this in an exclusive interview with ARISE TV aired on Thursday.
The National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who is said to be nursing presidential ambition, hails from Lagos State.
There have been issues over the zoning arrangement of the party. While some of its chieftains, including the minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, are insisting that there is a zoning agreement, others are saying there is none.
The dust over the issue has continued to gather as the second term of President Buhari lapses on May 29, 2023.
Daily Trust reports that the national convention of the party, where a decision on the zoning is expected to be taken, has been fixed for June this year. But before then, a deep crack has been created in the party.
The president said only members of the political party have the power to decide the party’s fate.
Buhari, who said the Mai Mala Buni-led APC caretaker leadership was working to reposition the party, disclosed that the much-awaited national convention will hold soon.
He said: “The hope of this administration is to see APC last beyond it. Therefore, we should allow the party to decide.
“The restructuring of the party has begun from the bottom to the top with the membership card registration. Every member of the party must be involved.
“We will soon conduct our convention. No single member of the party will be allowed to go against the wish of the party.
“We should allow the party to decide. I gave the chairman till the end of this month for the committee to develop terms for the convention that we are going to conduct and then arrange all the elections.
“We will start this from bottom up. The zoning depends on the party. The party sits and makes its decision by the constituency and so on.
“The political party has to know how many members it has state by state. This is the right step to go about it.
“This administration under APC has achieved a lot. Go and look at what was on ground before we came.”