The hitherto relative peace enjoyed by the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) looks threatened with Yahaya Bello’s posters declaring his intention to unseat the incumbent, Abdullahi Ganduje, as the national chairman of the ruling party a few days after handing over to his successor as Kogi State governor.
The posters announcing Bello’s interest to wrest the position, entitled: “Next level, Alh Yahaya Bello, APC National Chairman, leading the change, building a strange APC,” is hinged on the renewed determination of the North Central stakeholders of the party to reclaim the position statutorily zoned to the region.
President Bola Tinubu and the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) had imposed Ganduje, who is from the Northwest, on the party to take over from the former governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Adamu, from North Central, who resigned his position.
His posters flooding the secretariat will not, however, come as surprise to many as the immediate past Kogi governor is speculated to have been meeting and lobbying several stakeholders to facilitate the position for him.
Although sources claimed Bello had, on several occasions, met with Ganduje to deny having interest in the position, he was, however, said to have been relying on simmering discontent among key APC figures in the North Central zone, arguing imbalances in political appointments which were influenced by the APC national chairman.
Since his assumption of office as the national chairman, discontent and perceived imbalances in the appointments favoring the Northwest zone has been an issue of serious concern to many.
Sources close to the office of the national chairman told Daily Sun that former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso, was the one backing former governor Bello to unseat Ganduje.
“They started hatching the plans from Kano State sponsoring some youths that claimed to be APC members to discredit him. Yes, Bello may have claimed his innocence before the chairman, but we have strong indication that he is working hand in hand with Kwankwaso to unseat the chairman and settle political scores,” the source told said.