A frontline governorship aspirant of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna State, Sani Mohammed Sha’aban, has rejected the reported anointment and endorsement of Senator Uba Sani as the party’s consensus candidate, by Governor Nasir El-Rufa’i and some other leaders of the party.
Sha’aban who described the purported endorsement as undemocratic, said 90 per cent of the APC members and stakeholders in the state were not in support of the endorsement. Sha’aban who was the governorship candidate of the defunct All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP) in 2007 and that of ACN in 2011 before the ANPP, ACN and CPC collapsed to become the APC in 2015 general elections said, anything short of primaries will be rejected in totality by him and his numerous followers.
The governorship hopeful who is a former member House of Representatives maintained that, it is an insult on his personality as a founding member of the party and being the first to purchase the governorship form, not to be consulted before such position was reached, only for him to read it on the pages of newspapers that the governor has anointed Senator Sani as APC consensus candidate.
Addressing a press conference in Kaduna, the governorship hopeful said, the party came to power in 2015 and 2019 through democratic process and has enjoyed good will of members, hence the party must not deviate from such democratic norms if it must continue to enjoy good will not only from members of the party but Nigerians in general.
“We receive the news of the endorsement of Senator Uba Sani as consensus candidate by Governor Nasir el-Rufai with mixed feelings, because as a founding member of the APC and the first governorship aspirant to purchase the form, I was not contacted on any consensus arrangements which I consider an insult on my person. Consensus is undemocratic because democracy is about people and number except if the present administration is not concerned about the success of the party in Kaduna State, otherwise the spirit of success of making APC a dynamic party should be respected,’ he said.
He therefore reiterated that, his aspiration is among other reasons to give people a sense of belonging and to render selfless service and better the lots of the good people of Kaduna State, stressing, “Nigeria is not under a military dictatorship but democracy, but am sorry to say that that is not the case in Kaduna State because consensus is being used to deceive people in Kaduna State. So, all am saying is that, we reject in totality any consensus arrangements, it is an attempt to render all delegates useless which is against democratic process, I also wish to make it clear that I cannot be rubbished, because if you rubbish me I will rubbish you, democratic process must be followed and respected, all those who purchased form must be allowed to go for primaries,” he stressed.