Sani, APC trade words over el-Rufai’s successor

• Fulani youths back Bwacha for Taraba gov
• Nigeria not ripe for direct primaries, says IPAC

Senator Shehu Sani, who represented Kaduna Central in the 8th National Assembly, and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state have clashed because of the senator’s interest in the 2023 governorship race.

Declaring his preparedness to bring stability to Kaduna State and end the alleged misrule of Governor Nasir el-Rufai’s government, Sani said he’s joining the race is to rescue the state from the mess.

But APC responded, yesterday, that the people of Kaduna would not allow comedians to take over their Government House in 2023, as “Kaduna is too big for comedians.”

The Publicity Secretary of Kaduna APC, Salisu Wusono, said: “The APC has observed that with the next general elections approaching, all sorts of characters are trying to disrespect the people of Kaduna by treating the contest for the next governorship of the state as if it is a grand comedy. Our party knows that the people of Kaduna have seen consistent good governance since 2015 and they will not allow nonentities to ruin it for them.”

SIMILARLY, Fulani youths in Taraba State have thrown their weight behind Senate Deputy Minority Leader, Emmanuel Bwacha, to run for the governorship of Taraba in 2023.

During an interactive session with the media in Jalingo, the youths, through their leader, Abdulrazak Mahmud, said they had mapped plans to mobilise their kinsmen across the state to ensure victory for the senator.

Though, as at the time of filing this report, the senator representing Taraba South had not yet signified interest in the state’s number one position, but the youths vowed not to rest until he finally accepts to contest.

ON its part, the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has said that Nigeria is not yet ripe for a direct primary election model in the selection of political party candidates.

It, therefore, called on the legislature and the judiciary to come together and save democracy in Nigeria by putting a stop to the trend.

During a press briefing yesterday in Abuja, the national chairman of IPAC, Yabagi Sani, noted that the only expressed grouse of the President, on the basis of which he held back his assent, was the provision in the electoral bill for mandatory use of direct primary election in the selection of flagbearers of all the political parties.

He said: “Many have canvassed the view that no amount of money should be considered too high in the efforts to sanitise the nation’s electoral process and that the legislature should, therefore, invoke its veto powers to overrule the President. To us in IPAC, such action may be tantamount to a wholesale wrecking of the boat.”