By Isreal Adamu, Jos
Ahead of the 2027 general election, the North-Central All Progressives Congress, APC, Forum has declared that the North-Central zone will not go into any coalition with the North-East and the North-West.
There are speculations that ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar, former governors of Kaduna and Rivers states, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai and Rotimi Amaechi, and Labour Party, LP, presidential candidate in 2023, Peter Obi, are planning to join forces against President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
The speculations heightened after the opposition politicians criticised Tinubu’s government and the ruling APC at the National Conference on Strengthening Democracy in Nigeria, held on Monday, 27th January 2025, in Abuja.
El-Rufai at the event urged opposition parties to unite and form a broad coalition to challenge the APC and protect democracy in the country.
In a statement made available to journalists on Saturday in Abuja, the North-Central APC Forum said the zone would not be part of any coalition that includes the North-East and the North-West.
In the statement signed by its Chairman,
Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, a member of the APC presidential campaign council in the 2023 election, the Forum said the North-Central does not want a repeat of what happened after it played a major role in the coalition that led to the formation of the APC and emergence of the government of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
In February 2013, Nigeria’s three biggest opposition parties at the time – the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP – teamed up with a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, and a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to form the APC.
The CPC camp, which was led by Buhari, included Governor Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State, from the North-Central.
As at the time of the merger, the North-West zone had only one governor among the parties in the coalition – Zamfara State governor Abdul’aziz Abubakar Yari of the ANPP.
The ACN was led by Tinubu, who later became the national leader of the APC.
The only ACN governor at the time of the merger, Dr. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, left office in October 2014, months after the new party was formed. Although Peter Obi was Anambra State governor on APGA’s platform at the time of the merger, he was not part of the party’s faction that joined to form the APC.
The statement noted that the North-Central was relegated to the background by the North-East and the North-West during Buhari’s administration, despite playing a major role in the coalition that brought the government.
“The North-Central brought a sitting governor in the coalition. Many of the other zones did not bring anything.
“Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State in the North-Central was the only sitting governor from the opposition camp that actively participated in forming the APC.
“But it is unfortunate that after he became President, Buhari did not even consider that when we asked for the position of Speaker and the position was taken to Lagos.
“During Buhari’s government the North-Central suffered most – we were denied infrastructure, our roads were not attended to and the high level ot insecurity in the region was not addressed.
“Instead the North-East and the North-West concentrated all the benefits in their zones. Federal appointments, which many Nigerians believed favoured the North, only went to the two zones. The North-Central was left out,” the statement said.
According to the APC Forum, the request by the North Central Elders Forum, NCEF, for the zone to be given the chance to produce the Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2019, was rejected by the the APC leadership because Buhari, from the North-West, did not approve the plea.
The statement added that the position of Senate President in the Buhari government, which went to the North-Central following the election of Senator Bukola Saraki, from Kwara State, should have been retained by the zone during Buhari’s second term.
Ahmed Lawan, from Yobe State, replaced Saraki as Senate President in Buhari’s second term, serving in the position from June 2019 to the end of the administration in 2023.
The North-Central APC Forum said not retaining the Senate presidency in the zone, after Saraki’s tenure, was an injustice to the region.
Distancing the North-Central from the coalition, the statement added, “Whatever Atiku Abubakar and Mallam Nasir El-Rufai are doing is for their own benefit, not even in the interest of the North-East and North-West.
“Nigerians should also bear in mind that all these politicians who are attacking President Bola Tinubu today are just frustrated individuals who are angry that they are not part of the government.
“They will be singing a different song if they are part of the government.
“We restate our position that no magic would make President Bola Tinubu lose his bid for reelection in 2027 – not even the alliance and coalition of these political leaders. We are confident that Nigerians will once again chose the APC government in the next election because of the good performance of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
“However, the North-Central APC Forum wishes to make it clear that the North-Central zone will not be part of any coalition with the North-East and the North-West.
“It is very imperative that we make this point because we have observed that the planned coalition is being championed by politicians from these two zones – His Excellency Alhaji Atiku Abubakar from the North-East and Mallam Nasir El-Rufai from the North-West.”
