By Michael Peter, The Sight News
Abuja: The All Progressives Congress, (APC) has expressed support for the President on his purported statement to the World Bank where he demanded that the World body focused its developmental agenda for Nigeria on the North.
The party’s position was made by the National Publicity Secretary of the Party, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi after a meeting of the National Working Committee with the APC Governors Forum and the APC caucus in the National Assembly in Abuja.
Mallam Abdullahi maintained that the statement by the President was not intended to show preference for one part of the country against the other, but in recognition of the particular devastation that boko haram has caused in parts of that region.
“An issue was being canvassed in the media that President Muhammadu Buhari asked the world bank to focus attention only on the North of Nigeria. The issue came up for discussion.
“So the All Progressives Congress throws its weight completely behind Mr. President’s position and we believe that as long as the North-East of Nigeria continues to suffer the devastation that it has suffered and continues to represent a very dark spot in human development indices of Nigeria there is a need to direct special attention on that part of the country”.
He added; “we will like to clarify in addition to everything that has been said. That the import of what the President said to the world Bank is in recognition of the particular devastation that boko haram has caused in the North East of Nigeria. Therefore, when Mr President was asking the world Bank to focus attention on the development of the North East, he had in mind the necessary reconstruction that need to happen in that part of the country especially in the Borno, Adamawa and Yobe axis that suffered particularly as a result of the Boko Haram activities”.
The Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, who also spoke to newsmen expressed satisfaction with the inclusion of the National Assembly to the monthly meeting, saying that, “the party, the legislature that the executives should be working on the same level.
“Our party has seen the wisdom to bring all of us together so that when we discuss policies, and the way forward for our party, we’ll be talking on the same plane. Therefore this is the beginning. The APC is back because we have been bedeviled by some problems recently but we are able to solve many of our problems and I think that the idea of getting everybody on the same platform is the best way forward for the Party to solve every other problem that is left to be resolved”.
Also addressing newsmen after the meeting, the Bauchi State Governor, Mohammed Abubakar disclosed that “part of the agenda of the meeting was the forthcoming Anambra governorship election for which I am the chairman of the campaign council and we have briefed the meeting of our preparations so far.
“We taken the representative of the party to see Mr President, we got the words of wisdom from him particularly on the provision of a level playing ground at the election and ensuring that the elections are free fair and transparent”.
He further disclosed that the meeting also received a report on the Committee on True Federalism that has been set by this party “and the general overview of the report was given to us by the chairman of the party, especially on the public sittings that have been conducted”.
On the statement credited to the southwest chapter of the APC that the 2019 Presidential ticket of the party was open to any member of the party who desires it, he noted that no such thing was discussed at the meeting but held that the party has a constitution and its activities will be guided by it.
