From Agaju Madugba, Katsina
Some two years to the scheduled 2023 presidential election, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Babangida Saidu Nguroje, says the party is already on its way to emerging victorious with its acclaimed 40 million registered members from across the country.
A former Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives and Secretary APC National Monitoring Committee for ward congresses in Katsina State, Nguroje told reporters on Sunday that, “we have already registered well over 40 million members which will automatically translate to votes for the APC.
“If you remove 40 million from the list of registered voters nationwide then you don’t need to be told what it means when you go to the polls.”
He urged the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to jettison its aspiration for the presidency insisting that, “the presidency in 2023 is already a done deal for the APC and it is clear enough for everybody to see.”
He said that certain reported grievances from a cross section of APC members would not interfere in the party’s chances at the polls as Njugoje noted that, “it is normal, even in a family, that some people may feel aggrieved for one reason or the other but what is most important is that you have to use what we call internal mechanism to unite all our members so that all of us will be on the same page. “The APC headquarters is already doing that because in the next few days all the appeal committees will go to the various states where they will sit with the people, listen to their grievances and see how they can mend fences.
“Our aggrieved members should be patient and explore all the internal mechanisms available in the party because in any organisation you find yourself, you cannot rule out certain forms of misunderstanding.”
He said that the APC would address the agitation for the presidency to shift to the southern part of the country in 2023, as, according to him, “you know there is a saying that it is only when you get to the bridge that you will know how to cross it.
“We are still far away from 2023 because we are talking about two years from now.
“When we get there, we will know how to tackle the issue but I assure you that we have the capacity within the party to unite all our members.”
He hailed the President Muhammadu Buhari administration for tackling the insurgency in the North-East headlong, as, according to him, “if you talk of security, before the coming of the APC, don’t forget that the North-East was a no-go area and if you take Borno State, more than 80 per cent of the local government areas was under the control of Boko Haram insurgents.
“But when this administration came into office there has been positive change in that area and you know security is a global issue. “It is not something you wake up one morning and expect all the issues to have been resolved.
“There are processes and procedures and the government is doing everything possible to minimise the state of insecurity in the country generally.”