Chairman of the media subcommittee for the national convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Nasarawa State Governor, Engineer Abdullahi Sule, has said that all governors elected under the platform of the party are united and working together with other major stakeholders, to ensure success of the March 26 convention.
The media subcommittee chairman, disclosed this in a chat with journalists, shortly after officially inaugurating the 34-member committee, at a ceremony in Abuja, on Monday.
According to Engineer Sule, inspite of insinuations suggesting division among the party ranks, all governors under the party have met and agreed to work together with other critical stakeholders of the party to ensure the convention holds successfully.
Engineer Sule said his committee, which is to be co-chaired by the Minister of Information and Culture, has been mandated to not only promote activities of the APC leading to the convention but to also promote the party in general.
“As you know, the governors actually met and we held marathon meetings a few days back. During the meeting, we have been able to bring all the various governors, who had different understanding of the convention together.
“So all the governors are working together as a team. We are working together with the leadership of the party, the presidency and most of the major stakeholders,” he stated.
The chairman explained that part of the responsibility of his committee is to continue to unite the party, because the APC is the party to beat, with the APC growing stronger by the day.
Commenting on the stability of the party, Engineer Sule commended President Muhammadu Buhari, who as the leader of the party, has met with various groups and took a position that will further unite the party.
“He has been able to bring all the governors together to seat with us, discuss with us and gave us some sense of direction,” he said.
Governor Sule equally commended the chairman of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the party and governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni, for his maturity and patience and also for being straightforward with other stakeholders of the party since he returned from his medical trip abroad.
“We must commend the co-chair of the party, the governor of Niger State. He was able to stand and he did so many things, as well as the various other people that have worked in one way or the other. All the governors have worked, the national assembly members have done wonderful job by giving us maximum cooperation,” the Nasarawa Governor stated.
He singled out the aspirants under the banner of the APC for going about their campaigns with decorum.
The media subcommittee chairman said the party was not able to agree on consensus for the position of the national chairman because the aspirants didn’t agree to the arrangement, as such the party will allow the aspirants test their popularity during the convention.
Throwing more light on why despite the party zoning the position of the national chairman to the North Central, still aspirants from other zones also bought forms to contest for the position, Engineer Sule described the phenomenon as the beauty of democracy.
“Usually when they said something is zoned, you are trying to promote concensus, that is the whole idea. But if people insist, that, no we don’t want consensus, you must give them the freedom, you must allow them to do that. That is a pure demonstration of democracy and that is what we are trying to do,” he said.
Other members of the media subcommittee include Mallam Garba Shehu, who will serve as secretary, former aviation minister, Mr Femi Fani Kayode and seasoned journalist and columnist, Hannatu Musawa, among others.