The national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, says his party will continue as Nigeria’s ruling party even after the expiration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term in 2023.
Oshiomhole made this known at a meeting with APC governors on Friday, August 23,in Abuja, The Nation reports.
The APC chairman also called for unity among party members to move the party and the country forward.
He, however, admitted that the task of leading the ruling party has been quite challenging.
“It is quite a challenging experience for me. I try to compare myself as a governor and now as chairman of a party, coming in at the eve of primaries and dealing with fall outs of the previous congresses. And then proceeding to conduct elections.
“Then conduct primaries and campaigns across the 36 states and the FCT. And, working hard to ensure that we secure as many votes we can for our president.
“As, well as support our states particularly where we didn’t have state governors to ensure that we are able to lend a helping hand,” he said.
Oshiomhole further expressed happiness over the success of the party in the last elections while admitting that the party also lost some states.
He said: “I am happy to say that at the end of the day even though we lost some states we also gained some states.
”We gained Kwara, which for us is extremely important. And, we also gained Gombe state which is also very strategic among others.
“Of course, we have a clear majority in the National Assembly. We have more senators elected on our platform. We also have more of House Representatives elected on our platform.
“As it stands there are many cases in court. And until those cases are resolved, we won’t be able to say for sure where we stand. It is our prayer because we believed that a lot of our cases in court have merit. We hope that there will be justice and they are resolve in our favour.”
The APC chairman also used the occasion to congratulate the returning APC governors for their successful re-election.
”We also want to congratulate you for having being re-elected. Sometimes it is easier to be elected the first time. But to be re-elected implies a huge vote of confidence by the people of your respective states.
“And looking at things from here, I know a lot went into trying to seize the deliberate attempt by the opposition to discredit the good ones. Like, we have said during the retreat, we believed our party has made a lot of progress in the three key areas that were reflected in our manifesto.
“But, there is a lot to be done. And I am sure working together at both the executive, state and federal by the special grace of God, we will do better in this second time. As to merit, our party will continue to govern the country post 2023,” Oshiomhole said.
The delegation of the progressive governors was led to the meeting by their chairman and Kebbi state governor, Atiku Bagudu.
Governors present were Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara and deputy governor of Yobe state, Idi Barde Gubana.
Earlier, we reported that the progressive governors had written Oshiomhole saying the latter was responsible for the party’s declining fortunes.
The reported verdict by the governors came barely three weeks after the APC expelled Inuwa Abdulkadir, northwest zonal vice chairman of the ruling party.
In a letter by its director-general, Salihu Lukman, to the APC national chairman, the governors hit Oshiomhole saying his tenure as head of the party was bad.
