2023: APC Forum Urges Tinubu To Apologize Over Previous Comment On Non Belief In One Nigeria

By; AMOS MATHEW, Kaduna

As 2023 general elections draws nearer, some stakeholders of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Plateau State and states in the North Central zone of the country have asked Ahmed Bola Tinubu APC national leader and president aspirant for the 2023 election to apologise to Nigerians over his comments years back that he doesn’t believe in one Nigeria.

The leaders/members who have formed a forum to pursue emergence of the President from North Central region, said that even though the comment was made many years back, it is now being recalled by Nigerians since he declared his intention to run for the President in the 2023 election.

Speaking to newsmen in Jos the Plateau State capital on Monday on behalf of the forum, Saleh Mandung Zazzaga said that if Tinubu does not apologise to Nigerians, it will put his candidature and APC in bad light.

“In Thisday 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 in view of his presidential ambition declaration, people began to raise eyebrows and are asking damaging questions.

“So many people have been calling and mocking us, saying that if he does not believe in one Nigeria, how comes he has not believed in one Nigeria to the extent that he wants to contest for the Presidency of a nation he did not believe in.

” This has not only been agitating people’s minds, but the members of the APC as well and it is not good for the wellbeing 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.

“Therefore, the most honourable thing for Tinubu to do is 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.

“And that will not only project him as a true leader of the party or as presidential aspirant, but it will prove that he is a man of honour and dignity and someone who will take responsibility for his words, deeds and actions,” he said.

Zazzaga urged Nigerians to believe in the APC as a party of progressives that has the capacity to move the nation forward, irrespective of the current challenges which would soon be overcome.

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 zone has not actually produced the president or the vice president, but has tremendously contributed to the democratic growth of the nation.