Senator George Akume, Minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs and a frontrunner for the All Progressives Congress’s national chair, has stated that he will follow the party’s decision on the zoning of the party’s top position.
On Thursday, when appearing on Arise Television Night News Live, Akume addressed the subject.
He stated the party had yet to publicly identify the zone that would produce the national chairman, and that his choice to run would be contingent on the position’s zoning and what he called his “permission to contest.”
Akume alluded to his qualifications and ability to successfully and meaningfully steer the APC ship ahead of the crucial 2023 General elections, citing his eight-year governorship of Benue, where he successfully managed complex government and party issues, as well as his legislative experience and current assignment in the Federal Executive branch.
He claimed that the African People’s Congress (APC) had become the continent’s single largest political party, with over 46 million members registered.
He stated that the APC was the only option, even as he stated that the party was expecting leaders and members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who were looking for a better organized and administered party.
Hon. Mai Mala Buni, the Yobe Governor and Chairman of the Interim National Convention Planning/Caretaker Committee, was praised by Akume for his focused leadership in pursuing party reconciliation.
Buni, he said, was successfully leveraging his experience in political party administration, particularly as the party’s former national secretary before becoming governor, to strengthen the party.
In response to a query about the APC’s parallel congresses, Akume noted that in places where there were parallel congresses, they were the result of alleged conflicts of interest.
He explained that there was no parallel congress in Benue State, where he is the party’s head, and that the incidence only occurred in a few states.
The APC, according to Akume, controls 22 of the 36 states in the federation, and the party has established protocols and systems for crisis management.
He used another question to reiterate why he left the PDP and joined the Action Congress, on whose platform he joined other people from different parties to form the APC.
He claimed he left the PDP, of which he was a founding leader, because it was not being run in accordance with its constitution and manifesto.
