A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara, Mallam Saliu Mustapha, has declared that he doesn’t belong to any faction of the party in the state.
Mustapha, an APC chairmanship aspirant, said if elected, his first step will be to reconcile all the tendencies in Kwara APC.
Daily Trust reports that the crisis in the state chapter of APC has festered, resulting in the conduct of parallel congresses during the state congress of the party.
The state governor, Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq is currently at loggerheads with the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on one hand and other chieftains of the party.
Speaking with newsmen in Lagos on Friday, Mustapha who was a governorship aspirant in the state, stated that he is doing the best he could to manage the crisis in the state.
He said as one of the oldest members of APC in the state, he has been able to retain his neutrality and refrain from joining the fray.
He said, “I don’t belong to any faction. Two, I think I am one of the oldest members of APC in Kwara as a former Deputy National Chairman of CPC. I led CPC into the merger. So nobody is older than me in APC in Kwara. They all met me in APC.
“And I’ve retained that neutrality and I am hoping that, given the opportunity to be APC National Chairman, my first step would be reconciling the factions.
“In a political party, the more the merrier. You need all hands on deck…This would be a litmus test for me. I am already doing the best I can in the current circumstance to try and see that we accommodate each other and we manage the issue.
“Because there is a lot to be done. We still have to fulfil our electoral promises. So we should not waste time quarrelling over nothing. So if given the opportunity, it would be my first litmus test to see how I bring and reconcile everybody for us to have a united house in Kwara.”
The former CPC Deputy National Chairman who said he had been endorsed by every “well meaning stakeholder” of the party promised to ensure that APC continues to deliver on its electoral promises and improve accountability in the party.
He stated that he would also deepen internal democracy in the party by allowing popular candidates to emerge.
Mustapha added that as the chairman of the party, he would be a team player and give every member of the party a sense of belonging.
