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Fear grips Ganduje’s camp over second term ticket

By Abba Anwar, Kano
26 January 2017   |   2:21 am
Adherents of Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State have expressed concern over subtle moves allegedly by some powerful cabals in the All Progressives Congress (APC), to truncate the second term ambition...
Alhaji Abdullahi Umar Ganduje

Alhaji Abdullahi Umar Ganduje

Adherents of Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State have expressed concern over subtle moves allegedly by some powerful cabals in the All Progressives Congress (APC), to truncate the second term ambition of the incumbent ahead of the 2019 elections.

Such moves, according to The Guardian findings include denying Ganduje the second term ticket on the platform of the party and to also rubbish his achievements before the electorate.

While the scheming could not be separated from the ongoing face-off between the incumbent and his immediate predecessor, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, it was also claimed that some APC stakeholders, outside Kano State, are favorably disposed to the plan with the ultimate aim of whittling down the influence of President Muhammadu Buhari and his loyalists within the party, ahead of the next general elections.

But satisfied with the achievements of Gadunje’s administration so far, a group in the state, Genuine Democracy Watchers (GEDEW) recently appealed to the national leadership of the APC “not to get involved in the internal squabbles of the Kano State chapter when the time of fielding a candidate for the governorship election of 2019 comes.”

The national coordinator of the group, Mahmud Bala disclosed that they have been hinted from a reliable source, “that an influential Kano politicians was trying to connive with some party officials at the national headquarters to create confusion in the Kano APC when the time for fielding candidate of the gubernatorial seat comes.”

According to him, “We are fully aware of a ploy to impose a strange person, who is a loyalist of an Abuja based politicians on Kano APC as the governorship candidate during the upcoming 2019 general election.”

The group however called on the President to be vigilant and make sure that the APC “did not become another amalgamation of politicians that does not believe in party internal democracy.”

The group insisted that if the APC must recapture Kano and other states again “internal democracy must be protected and promoted.”

Bala said what decimated some notable political parties in the country was the absence of internal democracy, which impacted negatively on their survival.

“It is pertinent to understand the difference between democratic process and undemocratic manifestations. And care should be taken otherwise the continuity of change that the APC promised would be wasted half way.”

The group also challenged all Kano APC politicians interested in the governorship race in 2019, to make public their plans as well as let the grassroots their contributions to the people in the last decade known.

While the group acknowledged that anybody has the constitutional right to contest any elective position, it said the party members would not succumb to any external pressure.

“Nobody is contesting the right of other people from contesting any election of their choice at any given time, but then, party members have equal right to make one’s political interest short-lived. That is why we are categorically saying that APC should be very cautious about that,” it stated.

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