The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Adamu, says the ruling party has not taken a decision on where to zone its presidential ticket ahead of the 2023 general election.

Adamu made this known while speaking to newsmen shortly after presenting the party’s candidate in the forthcoming Ekiti State governorship election, Biodun Oyebanji, to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Friday.

Adamu, who was accompanied by Ekiti State Governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Kayode Fayemi; Kebbi State Governor and Chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), Atiku Bagudu; and the National Secretary of the APC, Senator Iyiola Omisore; said the decision to zone the APC presidential ticket would be the job of the entire party, which he said was bigger than himself as Chairman.

He said: “I am today privileged to be the Chairman of the party. The party is greater than me. The party has not made a decision on zoning the presidential ticket and I cannot preempt what the party’s decision will be.”

Adamu said this in contradiction to a statement by Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, that the ruling party’s presidential candidate will come from the South.

Governor El-Rufai had before the party’s National Convention in March said even though the APC had not decided on zoning the presidential ticket, the swapping of national offices was an indication of where its presidential candidate would come from, noting: “our expectation is that our presidential candidate will come from somewhere in the South.”

“It is up to the southern caucus of the APC to now propose to us an acceptable candidate,” the governor added.

However, Adamu, while speaking on fears in some quarters that the process of settling for the party’s presidential candidate could tear it apart if not carefully handled, said: “God will not allow that to happen to us.

“We will come out by the grace of God, at the appropriate time [with] the candidate the convention will choose.

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“I do not want to speculate, but my duty as chairman is to listen to party men, party leaders, stakeholders, to see what is going to be the best when the time comes, and I’ve always found it easier and more noble to get to the bridge before I jump to cross it. We are not yet there,” he added.

Adamu, however, declined to speak on the issue of when political appointees who intend to contest for various positions in the 2023 election are expected to resign.

“The matter is currently in court,” he stated.

On the issue of N100 million fee fixed for the party’s nomination and expression of interest forms, the Chairman said the ruling party had no regret setting the prices at the current rate, citing the need to protect the party from unserious aspirants, moles, as well as the need to generate money to run the election processes.

Adamu said: “Yeah, I’ve been listening, with rapt attention, to the hues and cries from our lovers and from our adversaries. We have no regrets whatsoever.

“We did some homework, we know what it takes to go through primaries, go through presidential campaign, go through election for the President. We know what it takes.

“We also do know that there are citizens who are qualified to contest, but who are not serious contenders, who will just want to take anything cheap by the roadside, and assert what they call their rights and create problems for our party.

“We’re also aware that some parties that have no chance whatsoever to win presidential election in Nigeria, they will sponsor people in parties that have prospects for winning the election, to create problems for us, to divert our attention, whichever party is involved in that.

“Over and above that, yes, we are the ruling party. Yes, we need to set examples in what we do. But I ask you: I don’t know which part of the country you come from. If, God forbid, your traditional ruler dies today, contestants to that office will go for more than N100 million. It’s no news.

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“When I contested for the Senate, all I paid was just a token: N5 million, N10 million, including the expression. When my colleague wanted to be chairman of the party, in the days of Adams Oshiomhole, it took him N500,000.

“Today, for me, just as an example, to contest the national chairman of our party, I  had to pay N20 million to contest.

“Alright, and even the enormity of work that has to be done, and this work will be done with money. We don’t want to continue begging.

“So, I want to say that we’re able to mobilise sufficient funds to support our efforts to win elections. Some protests may be well-founded, I have no quarrel with that. But the propensity of this, is that people just assume it’s the ruling party.

“I will not quarrel with that, every one of us has the right to express himself, and I’m in full support of these obligations. But we wear the shoes for our party and we know where it pinches us the most,” the APC National Chairman stated.

The Star