Some leaders and members of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Plateau State and states in the North Central zone of the country have demanded the APC national leader, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, a presidential aspirant for the 2023 election, to apologise to Nigerians over his comments years back that he does not believe in one Nigeria.
The APC leaders who have formed a forum to actualise the emergence of a President from the North Central region said although Tinubu’s comment dates many years back, it is now being recalled by Nigerians because he has expressed his intention to run for the President of Nigeria come 2023.
Speaking to newsmen in Jos on behalf of the Forum, Saleh Mandung Zazzaga said that if Tinubu does not apologise to Nigerians, it will put his candidature and the APC in a bad light.
“In a national publication of April 13th, 1997, Tinubu granted an interview in which he was quoted as saying, ‘I don’t believe in One Nigeria’. And since that interview has resurfaced after he declared his presidential ambition, people have begun to raise eyebrows and ask damaging questions”, he said.
“So many people have been calling and mocking us, saying that if he does not believe in one Nigeria, how come he wants to contest for the Presidency of a Nation he doesn’t believe in?”, he added.
“This has not only been agitating the people’s minds but the members of the APC as well and it is not good for the well being of the party as the nation counts down to the 2023 general elections. As a national leader of the party, he just has to speak to Nigerians on that issue, and that will help him”, he advised.
“The most honourable thing for Tinubu to do is to come out and apologise to Nigerians on the comments which he made before this democratic dispensation which began in 1999, and he should as well explain the rationale of the interview to Nigerians and point out if he was misquoted or not. Whatever his explanation would be, at least it will calm down people’s nerves and save the party from being projected in a bad light”, he analysed and advised further.
Zazzaga urged Nigerians to believe in the APC as a party of Progressives that have the capacity to move the Nation forward, irrespective of the current challenges threatening the nation.
Meanwhile, he stressed that their quest as a forum is to see that the 2023 Presidency comes to the north-central because, since this democratic dispensation, the region has not actually produced the President or Vice President, but has tremendously contributed to the democratic growth of the nation.
