2027: Kaduna ADC woos El-Rufai, his supporters
By Idun Maximus
Kaduna State chapter of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has called on the former governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-rufai to come over to the party along with his thousands of followers in the state.
The ADC chieftain in Kaduna State, who is the former National Vice Chairman (North West) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman, told newsmen at a press conference on Sunday that the call on El-rufai has become necessary in order to unite the coalition under ADC in the state.
Lukman also informed that national registration with the ADC is ongoing with an online application, and called on Nigerians who are desirous of joining the party to register without hesitation.
“ADC has its doors open, anyone is welcomed to join the party. Every citizen of Kaduna are free to join us. Just about three months ago, 10,000 members joined the party. After a month ago, about 5000 NNPP and PDP members also joined.
“Elrufai, is not a member of ADC in Kaduna State, but El-rufai is in the leadership of coalition and is an important stakeholder. I’m appealing to him— we must not delay action that will unite our people. We can’t afford where SDP may create problem where takeoff of ADC as party is weakened. We want to see them fix their issues and come with us to build this party. A situation where leaders of coalition appears to be divided at the state level is not healthy. ADC has agreed at the national level. As far as Kaduna is concerned, we should see the bigger picture and come together. I want us to make all the sacrifices required; whatever is necessary to make ADC a strong contender and win elections in 2027 general elections
“About 18 months ago, up to the recent past, the fear is that if we don’t take time, we will end up with a one party state, whereby it is only the ruling party, APC, that will be healthy enough to present candidates for election in 2027. And that informed the reason why some of us took the initiative to approach many of the leading politicians in the country and discuss with them and persuade them to agree to work together.
“And in doing that, we were very clear that without working together, they will not succeed. Nobody will succeed in defeating the APC, whether at presidential level or at state level. And in order for them to work together, the first thing we emphasized, there is no discussion about the ambition of anybody.
“All that is important is that we want everybody to agree to work together. And that is what produced the outcome we have today as a coalition, that most of the leading politicians are all part of it. And that it took us a lot of time to be able to negotiate and have the African Democratic Congress (ADC) at the platform to contest the election.
“And when we did that negotiation, we were very clear that the leadership of the African Party should agree to submit the party for a complete overhaul, so that we are able to come into it, reorganize it, bring in new people. And where it matters, try to renegotiate the leadership of the party, which is what we did at National level.
“That produced the leadership of Senator David Mark as the National chairman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as the National Secretary, with other people. Now the next stage is to come down to state level.
“I am from Kaduna State, just like we did at the national level, we should also do the same at state level. Anybody who has the interests of the state at heart should agree to work with other leaders, other political leaders in the state, in order to find solutions to the problem facing states.
“And I think the reality of the coalition and the reality of ADC today presents a big opportunity for all our leaders to try and correct the mistake of the past. The first way to correct that mistake is for all of us to embrace each other and come and work together.
Anybody who decides he is not going to work with others, I don’t think that person wants to solve the problem of citizens in the state. I thought we need to make this very clearly and appeal to everybody to change the way politics is being played and try and use this opportunity to see the bigger picture and try to really, really, work so that we solve the problem of citizens rather than get what we want and end up, I mean, destroying a golden opportunity that is before us.
“I’m appealing to all of our leaders. We must not misuse this opportunity simply because we believe citizens are angry with APC. They are angry with the government of Kaduna State and think that we can ride on the back of that anger to defeat APC and the government of Kaduna State. I don’t think that is the way to go. The way to go is first and foremost, we must come together and develop a strong team so that when we are going to make mistakes, we have to produce a party that can even control us”, Salihu said
