2015: We’re party to beat in North, Southwest, says APC

Ahead of the 2015 elections, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said it is the party to beat in the North and Southwest.

Its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, described the party as the Ark of Noah, which will take the country to the promised land.


Recalling how the party came into being, Mohammed said its leaders evolved a strong platform through consensus, sacrifice and determination.

He expressed delight at the nationwide enthusiasm trailing APC’s registration, attributing it to the party’s national outlook.

Mohammed said: “The honest truth today is that we are the party to beat in those four zones (Northwest, Northeast, Northcentral and Southwest). And with the implosion in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the APC has come at the right time. We are like the Noah’s Ark that will take to safety all endangered species”.

Reiterating the party’s commitment to change, he said the APC had embarked on a rescue mission to prevent the country’s drift.

Mohammed who spoke with Freedom Online on APC’s registration, its programmes and strength, praised the merger leaders, like Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Chief Bisi Akande, Chief Ogbonnya Onu, Chief Olusegun Osoba, Prince Tony Momoh, Chief Tom Ikimi and the 11 governors for their patriotism, sacrifice and commitment, adding that they are assets to the party and the nation.
Mohammed said APC’s registration was making the ruling PDP jittery, insisting that 11 PDP governors and chieftains from across the federation were planning to defect to the mega opposition party.

He said: “We are very optimistic. As a matter of fact, going by the kind of goodwill messages that we have received from the serving PDP members, we are very hopeful that, even if not now, they are sending their people to join the party very soon”.

Mohammed said APC would take the polity by storm in 2015 by dislodging PDP from power. He said it was misleading to judge APC’s strength by its number of governors.

He said: “If a honest opinion poll is taken today, you will come to a conclusion that, in the Northwest, Northeast, Northcentral and Southwest, the APC is the preferred party. If this merger had taken place in 2011, we won’t have what we have now. Many of the states that we lost, the combined votes of the ACN, Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) and even All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in those states, are by far more than the votes of the PDP that won either legislative elections or governorship elections in those states.

“You can imagine in Benue State what the result would have been, or in Akwa Ibom, or in Niger State. Clearly, using the elected representatives today as the sole barometer for the electoral fortune of the APC in 2015 would be quite wrong. The honest truth today is that we are the party to beat in those four states”.
Mohammed said APC leaders were mindful of the party’s numerical strength and heterogenous nature; assuring that the process for the selection of candidates for elections would be transparent.

He reiterated the APC leaders’ desire to jettison personal agenda and ambitions for the national interest.
Mohammed debunked the notion that the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) often engaged in imposition of candidates, saying critics had always confused consensus candidacy with imposition.