IBRAHEEM MUHAMMAD
A former minister of sport, Mr. Solomon Dalung, has tasked the leadership of ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to adopt the direct primary system in electing leaders for the party.
Dalung, spoke in Abuja during a solidarity visit to the campaign office of the party’s leading chairmanship aspirant, Nasarawa’s former Governor Tanko Al-Makura, who is a serving senator.
Dalung said, “On the issue between direct, indirect or consensus election, he said that, the best option that Democracy demands is direct primaries, because whoever wants to aspire to power, people from his immediate environment should be able to attest to his competence and that is what democracy offers.
“But in indirect primaries, a group of people will sit down and decide and impose leadership on the majority.
“There is no way you will compare direct with indirect primaries. Consensus is a glorified political scam. Consensus of who and how? Who determines the content of consensus?”
Meanwhile, he also described the quest of Senator Umaru Tanko Al-Makura to become the chairman of the APC as timely due to his pedigree as a grassroots politician and a unifier for the party.
According to him, “Senator Al-Makura is a household name not only in the party, but the whole country.
“He is the former Governor of Nasarawa State, the first son of APC. Because he was the only governor of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC ), the first elected Governor of President Muhammadu Buhari when we moved to form alliance with other parties.
“He has declared interest to contest for the chairmanship of the APC. I came here in solidarity with his vision to contest and his vision represents hope for those founding members of APC.
“He surely represents hope for those who are founding members of APC to be a national movement.”
Dalong said Al-Makura must be able to deploy his experience to unite, reconcile and build a very strong and a viable party.
“He has a great job ahead of him. He has their solidarity and assurance that the hope of a better APC lies in him,” he stressed.
The former minister gave him the support from the North Central, knowing him too well to assure him that he deserves the chairmanship seat, as the region has, from 1999, not produced a President, Vice President and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, which makes it “the most disfavoured”.