APC National Convention: Aspirant promises automatic tickets for lawmakers

An All Progressives Congress (APC) chairmanship aspirant, Sani Musa, has promised that members of the party at the National Assembly will get the first right of refusal for return tickets during the elections, if elected.

Mr Musa, a serving senator, made the promise while addressing the APC caucus of the House of Representatives on Tuesday in Abuja.

He was responding to a question from Ahmed Jaha (APC, Borno) on the high turnover of members of the National Assembly.

Mr Jaha had lamented the inability of legislators to get return tickets of their party and asked the aspirant what he would do about the situation, if he is elected at the party’s national convention on March 26.

Mr Musa said he would make it a policy of the party to give lawmakers the right of refusal for tickets. He, however, said the privilege will be based on the performance of the lawmakers.

He explained when the policy is in place, peer review will be carried out to assess the performance of every lawmaker elected on the party’s platform.

“Every one of us collects allocation as constituency projects. Every one of us has his/her own initiative and manifesto that he or she intends to do for its constituents. Are you discharging it?

“By that peer review that we will do, we will be able to get enough data on the party. So, by the time we say no, we are refusing you the ticket, we will say go and compete with others. But we know that when you compete you will fail.

“And if you want to challenge us on why we have given Mr A and we are refusing you, we will bring out the data. That will enhance performance. When we do that, it will take care of dropping of the members all the time. And then we will make it as a policy of the party. Everywhere, they do that, even in the United States,” he said.

Mr Musa also spoke on the need for a sustainable source of funding for the ruling party.

According to him, the party has no reason to depend on the governors of the party for funding but that it should leverage on its 42 million registered members to raise funds.

“We have websites, APC, APC, APC…..Everything can be collapsed into one, and by the press of one button….. Why is it that when you open your mail, you see different kinds of spam messages you don’t even welcome sometimes? But you see a topic or heading that will attract you to open. But by the time you open (it), you will realise that it is rubbish. But someone is making money from it.

“We all have our smartphones. All the 42 million members or at least the majority of us have telephones. I can see in the register, there is a column where phone numbers are fixed. Why can’t we take advantage of that and collect our subscription without making our members feel it by collecting on a monthly basis?

The senator, who represents Niger East Senatorial District, also pledged support for the inclusion of women.

He stated that there is a plan for youth and women, noting that the party must define affirmative action because the concept is so vast.

“Under my leadership, the womenfolk will have their way because I don’t see why women should buy forms. I don’t even see why we should allow women to go around the constituencies, men should do that for them,” he said.

We’re are not going to have Buhari’s 12 million votes in 2023– Yari

Meanwhile, another aspirant, Abdulaziz Yari, has said the APC needs someone with his experience to run the party in order to win the 2023 presidential election.

Mr Yari, a former governor of Zamfara State, stated this on Tuesday during a meeting with the House of Representatives APC Caucus.

He said the APC will be going into the 2023 elections without the12 million votes President Muhammadu Buhari secured in the previous elections to defeat his opponents and therefore, the party needs to get someone with his experience to navigate it.

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“We know that our party is in a delicate situation, which needs to be resolved before we get to the polling booths in 2023. I know that I have the capacity to work with each and every one of you,” he added.

Mr Yari, a former member of the House of Representatives, who is in the race despite the micro-zoning of the chairmanship position to the North-central geopolitical zone, said he was not aware of the zoning arrangement of the party.

“I do not know anything about the issue of zoning because it was not communicated to me, I only saw it on social media.

“I have picked form and we are ready to meet at the ballot,” he said.

The former governor, who frowned at zoning, said that members of the party were trying to break the jinx called zoning by embracing real democracy.