A former Borno State Governor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, has said the exit of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023 will affect the All Progressives Congress (APC), unless an experienced national chairman is in place to steer the party through its challenges.
Sheriff, one of the contenders for the APC’s national championship position, said a rugged captain will ensure that the party retained power for the next 50 years.
He noted that the party needed to reposition itself and work hard to retain the 12 million votes Buhari brought to the table when he joined APC.
Sheriff said, “You all know that today as a political party, we are about six and half years. It is a combination of different political parties that became APC and we also know that our President Muhammadu Buhari even before coming into APC had already made 12 million votes from the ANPP and CPC days.
‘’He brought that to the table and what are we going to face after the exit of His Excellency, the President?
“It is we the APC members that will tell the world that we are capable of getting their trust even when he finished his tenure.
Doing that, you need everybody.
“You need people who know the history of the party, where we are coming from, who know the history of this country, someone who has been in different aspects of life and we need to work together, we need to build bridges across the country.
“Today, as a party we are only six years in government, our aspiration is for the APC to be in government in the next 30 to 40, 50 years. Doing that doesn’t come on a platter of gold, we need to put in hard work.
“Therefore, I believe it is important for me to reach out to all leaders of our party; the youths, the women, different organizations to tell them that we must come together to get our party to run for the next 30, 40, 50 years by the grace of God.
“Doing that you need a rugged captain, you don’t need a captain that will capsize. A ship has to be navigated by a knowledgeable person who knows the waters and I believe I can do that for our party if given the opportunity by party men and women who are the decision-makers.
“There are so many people in the field but you can look at everybody and see where you can put your deposit. We don’t want a bank that will collapse after a short period. So, I have been going around the country.”
“I have been away, traveling from one state to the other and I will continue doing that until everybody in our party is consulted. I meet them in their homes to say that, yes I want to run for the national chairmanship of this party and I believe I can lead us well because party politics is different.”
