2023 Presidency: We Won’t Discard Tinubu Because Of Jonathan – APC Chieftain

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that the party’s leadership will not discard Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in the event that former President Goodluck Jonathan accepts to fly the party’s ticket in the 2023 presidential election.

Musa Sarkin Adar, the House of Representatives member for Goronyo/Gada Federal Constituency, stated this on Friday while featuring on Arise TV’s ‘The Good Morning Show’ monitored by THE WHISTLER.

Adar, who is the chairman reps committee on petroleum resources, said the ruling party should not be faulted if decides to give its next presidential ticket to Jonathan.

Recall that the ruling party had spent a better part of the administration’s first few years blaming the former president for Nigeria’s challenges.

But Adar said the quest to bring Jonathan to APC’s fold revolves around the former president’s good profile both locally and internationally.

He said, “The bottom line is this, a party is free and can woo whoever it thinks will add value to its fight. The person who is being approached to join a political party is also free to make his choice either to remain where he is or to come to the other party that is wooing him to come just like it has happened with Femi Fani-Kayode yesterday.”

Jonathan had on Wednesday restated that he had not joined the ruling party.

The rumours about his alleged plan to join the APC started when some chieftains of the party visited him in November.

But Adar said, “It might be in the thinking of the APC strategies that we need to have people that can add value, electoral value and those that can add electoral value for the first time should be the big names before we go to the grassroot. The grassroot is always at the tail end during the general election campaign.

“So, APC should not be faulted if it decides to look for president Jonathan (former) to join it and also to contest for the presidency or to be a father figure in the party. For me president Jonathan like I said is also free to make a choice to join the APC especially having been respected and recognised.

“But I do not wish to subscribe to the idea that if Jonathan comes in, the APC is going to jettison the APC National Leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. This should be far away from the truth. If the APC zones its presidential candidate to the South, I don’t think it will microzone it. It is going to be to the entire South.

He said if APC presidential ticket is zoned to the South, the region would decide the zone that the slot would go to.

The South-West has ruled for 8 years under president Olusegun Obasanjo, while the South-South ruled for six years under Jonathan.

The APC chieftain said, “Politics is a game of strategy and a game of numbers. For now, the bottom line is first favouring South-West which has populated the APC… Then the South-South recently we have the Governor of Cross River State who defected to the APC and also the Governor of Ebonyi State who defected to the APC from the South-East.

“Bola Ahmed Tinubu still remains the frontline presidential aspirant of the APC from the South generally,” he added.