It is not longer news that the All Progressives Congress (APC) has rolled out its timetable for the party’s congress from ward to state level. With this, the quest for the party’s next helmsman, the national chairman, has started. It is obvious that the fortunes of the APC in 2023 will be determined by the calibre and quality of the chairman that emerges from the convention.
The delegates have the trump card. Will they be patriotic and play it well and guarantee the party’s victory in 2023 or will they sell it to the highest bidder for a pot of porridge and damn likely catastrophic consequences? APC will not want a repeat of the controversies of the 2019 primaries. The desire of every committed party member is for the party to come back stronger and organised for 2023 general elections and consolidate on the development strides of the last six years to reaffirm hope to Nigerians.
In order to engender a policy of inclusion, every qualified member of the APC has the right to aspire.
However, it will be good if the party narrows the search of the national chairman to a particular zone of the vountry as part of its strategy towards 2023 general elections. So far, those aspiring and eminently qualified to lead the party include Dr. Abdul-Aziz Yari, a former Governor of Zamfara state; Senator Mohammed Sani Musa, a successful businessman, politician and a serving senator; Senator Danjuma Goje, a former governor and a serving senator; Senator Abdullahi Adamu, a former governor and a current senator; Senator Tanko Al-Makura, a former governor and serving senator; Senator Ali Modu Sherrif, a former governor and senator and Hon. Mustapha Mohammed from Kwara state.
What the party needs now ahead of 2023 is a real national reinvigoration. A party chairman who is vibrant, young, energetic, bridge-builder, a detribalised, cosmopolitan and someone who is non-partisan and does not belong to any ‘power block’ or ‘faction’ or ‘camp’. He should be a selfless leader who has all it takes to transform and nurture the party and shield it from divisive and destabilizdng threats of the ultra-left and ultra-right elements that have been threatening the very foundation of the party.
The chairman’s office must not be for sale to the highest bidder or any individual with questionable capacity and integrity.
APC needs a national chairman who will not lead with negativism and fear of the future, but with vigour, vision and aggressive leadership— leaders who will not be isolated from the members of the party and act within the constitution of the party. The party vhairman with civility, direction, tolerance and courage whose policies will be realistic and innovative; the type with a fresh perspective and foresight for a changing world, the kind who understands the unconventional challenges the party faces and how to lead us to overcome them.
Anyone aspiring for the party’s leadership must be a mobiliser and rallying point for all the members of the party. X-raying Senator Sani Musa’s credentials, it becomes glaring that he is the most suitable aspirant that APC deserves. He is a go-getter, a tactician, meticulous strategist and the, whose innovations brought tremendous transformation into our electoral system in the country.
As the national chairman of APC, he can deploy this personal character and technical capacity to the service of the party and country, driving openness and transformation in the management of the affairs of the party as practiced in advanced democracies. He possesses the capacity to develop strategies and ideas to manage, coordinate, promote internal cohesion to make every member have a feeling of inclusion.
Sani Musa’s election will be an opportunity to build a stronger party like advanced democracies, recover its moral authority and mobilise for more followers. By contrast, he is the best chance for recovering the optimism the party and Nigerians need. Party members, pundits and commentators are of this opinion and tip him as one with the potential to captain the ship of APC to give it victory in 2023 due to his good reputation and sacrifices for the party.
He has the knack to keep the party alive, more transparent and he is the acceptable face of the party because he represents the yawning gulf between the young and the old, North and South, executive and legislative arms of government.
He is politically balanced, economically literate and has all it takes to adhere to pragmatic leadership. Sani Musa is charismatic, transformational and inspirational.
Over the years, he has very assiduously built his image as a successful businessman, politician and a loyal party man who is a cut above the aspirants and has all it takes to make the party great. He will be that national chairman who will have the humility to accept others’ views, feedbacks and suggestions; while opposition leaders and critics are not going to be treated like enemies. His emergence as the APC national chairman will, among other things, bring new innovations, new leadership and new solutions to the party.
He is humble enough and sees leadership not as an entitlement but as a privilege. Good leadership is a stuff of countless resoluteness, strategies, ideas, courses and novelty. The aforementioned qualities, there is no doubt; Senator Sani Musa is endowed with them.
His wide contacts and acquaintances across the country with people, irrespective of religion, ethnicity or region, have prepared him as the avant-garde national chairman APC deserves. He is both the key to a brighter future and the bulwark to move APC to greater heights; his deep knowledge of public, international and private sector will be a great asset in moving the party to be a formidable one with a large spectrum of followerships.
So, it’s good APC hands over the future of the party by rallying round to endorse Senator Mohammed Sani Musa as its next national chairman for a “New Vision, New Direction”.
Ibrahim writes from Abuja
