Zoning: APC’ll not sacrifice merit –Tinubu

An insight into the thinking of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the zoning of offices in the National Assembly emerged yesterday as the National Leader of the party and former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, said the party will not sacrifice merit on the alter of zoning. 

Speaking after a meeting with the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, Tinubu said he was not ready to ‘rock the party’ even as he dismissed insinuations that the party was experiencing internal challenges over the matter.

He said the fear being expressed in some quarters that the party could be hurt by the zoning controversy was misplaced, stressing that APC would come out stronger.

His words: “You have heard from the party, you have heard from the leadership; it is not my desire to rock the party, I am a disciplined party man and we will look at it critically.

“However, the nation is expecting us to take a decisive leadership decision. Merit will not be compromised, you have to be competent, you have to posses the kind of character, you have to be pan-Nigerian and be a very solid character to lead the National Assembly and that is what we are talking about.

“It is not zoning to compromise quality of leadership and competency of an individual. I believe we have a very determined party leadership, we have resolved to follow our leadership and the criteria set by that leadership, including myself. Know that we would not use zoning to determine and compromise the credibility, the qualification of an individual.

“It must be all-encompassing and that is the question. If you take zoning in a wrong way, you might compromise the quality of an individual. Let everybody aspire, just like we aspired. People predicted during our presidential primaries that we were going to run into chaotic storm, we put those people to shame and we came out with the best. Expect the best from us always.

“The economic situation is a challenge, but we campaigned on issues and we have listened carefully to some detailed research and the economic indices are not what is expected – slow growth, huge indebtedness, huge deficit and so many factors – while the social issues are still there to be addressed. That is a challenge to leadership.”

On APC-led government’s preparedness to fix the economic challenges, Tinubu reminded that the party campaigned on issues and would tackle the issues very aggressively.

“One thing that must be clear is that change had occurred. Then, the positive change based upon the expectation of Nigeria will follow. It will follow with both endeavours and leadership activities.

“Whatever the cynicism now, the government is preparing to take over and be ready to face the challenges to create that positive change that is the expectation of Nigerians,” he said.

Credit: Sunonline