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The National Chairman of the ruling All Progressive Congress APC, Abdullahi Adamu has said that the ruling party is yet to decide on which part of the country will get its 2023 presidential ticket.
He added that the decision would be taken at a later date by the entire APC.
He made this remark a day after the National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, picked up his expression of interest and nomination forms.
The National Chairman, speaking with newsmen during a visit to the Presidential Villa, Abuja to present the APC governorship candidate in the forthcoming election in Ekiti State, Biodun Oyebanji, said he could not preempt the party on the zoning issue.
“I am today privileged to be the chairman of the party. The party is greater than me. The party has not made a decision and I cannot preempt what the party decision will be,” he told State House Correspondents in contradiction of a statement by Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai just before the APC national convention last month.
He however, refused to respond to another question from reporters yesterday on when ministers who intend to contest in the election would resign ahead of the primaries.
”Thank you very much for your question. Our luck is that I happen to be a lawyer and the issue you are raising is in court right now. So, it will be sub judice for me to discuss it at all,” he said.
He gave reply to critics who had berated the party over the N100 million fee fixed for its expression of interest and nomination forms for the presidential primaries.
He said the ruling party had no regret for its decision on the cost of the forms.
He said: “Yeah, I’ve been listening, with rapt attention, to the hues and cries from our lovers and from our adversaries. We have no regrets whatsoever.
“We did some homework, we know what it takes to go through primaries, go through presidential campaign, go through election for the President. We know what it takes.
“We also do know that there are citizens who are qualified to contest, but who are not serious contenders, who will just want to take anything cheap by the roadside, and assert what they call their rights and create problems for our party.
“We’re also aware that some parties that have no chance whatsoever to win presidential election in Nigeria, they will sponsor people in parties that have prospects for winning the election, to create problems for us, to divert our attention, whichever party is involved in that.
“Over and above that, yes, we are the ruling party. Yes, we need to set examples in what we do. But I ask you: I don’t know which part of the country you come from. If, God forbid, your traditional ruler dies today, contestants to that office will go for more than N100 million. It’s no news.
“When I contested for the Senate, all I paid was just a token: N5 million, N10 million, including the expression. When my colleague wanted to be chairman of the party, in the days of Adams Oshiomhole, it took him N500,000.
“Today, for me, just as an example, to contest the national chairman of our party, I had to pay N20 million to contest.
“Alright, and even the enormity of work that has to be done, and this work will be done with money. We don’t want to continue going a begging.
“So, I want to say that we’re able to mobilise sufficient funds to support our efforts to win elections. Some protests may be well founded, I have no quarrel with that. But the propensity of this, that people just assume it’s the ruling party.
“I will not quarrel with that, every one of us has the right to express himself, and I’m in full support of these obligations. But we wear the shoes for our party and we know where it pinches us the most.”
