Index to Nigerian Newspapers

Ahead of the 2023 general elections, leaders of the South East geo-political zone have begun moves to win the support of the North for an Igbo president. Speking in Kaduna during a meeting of Northern Leaders of Thought at Arewa House, the northern leaders, including Prof. Ango Abdullahi and Dr. Hakeem Baba Ahmed, said the overwhelming majority of politicians warning up to takeover power in 2023 and continue the business as usual, should be rejected.Speaking at a meeting with the national president of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Aihaji Yerima Shettima, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo presidential quest team said the Igbos believe in dialoque, lobbying and negotiation to actualise their ambition to produce the next President from south eastern zone is to be achieved. The Chairman of the Progressives Governor Forum (PGF) and Kebbi State Governor, Alhaji Atiku Bagudu, has reaffirmed the members' confidence in the party leadership under his Yobe State counterpart Mai Mala Buni. Meanwhile, former Borno State governor, Senator Kashim Shetima, and former secretary to the government of the Federation, David Babachir asked President Muhammadu Buhari and All Progressives Congress (APC) to consider the presidential bid of national leader of the party and former Lagos State governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a payback time for his efforts in ensuring that the party took power in 2015. He condermned what he described as mischievous fixation on Tinubu's age and the wild conclusions that he is physically unsuitable for the office of the president.

Salihu Mohd Lukman, a former director general of the Progressives Governor Forum (PGF), branded the All Progressive Congress (APC) as a party that is no longer tolerant and now takes the opinions of its leaders as the majority position. He published a post in which he recalled that the All Progressives Congress was founded in 2013 by the legacy parties as a result of the Peoples Democratic Party's (PDP) leaders' intolerance. He added that the situation has gotten so bad that it is difficult to connect the All Progressives Congress with its original objective because the organization has regressed and is now exhibiting the same trait. "Over time, this has hurt the All Progressives Congress (APC reputation )'s to the point where, based on the actions of party leaders and some elected officials, it is challenging to identify the All Progressives with its founding objective of change," he stated.

The leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is under intense pressure to jettison micro-zoning of the national chairman position and allow all aspirants vie for the party's top seat ahead of the february 26 national convention. With less than 27 days to the national convention, the party leadership is yet to officially announce the zone arrangement of office along geo-political regions. Instead, the Mai Mala Buni-led All Progressives Congress (APC) had on several occasions spurned reports that it has zoned the offices, and all aspirants in the contest are from North at the moment, some of the zoning projections which have been refuted by the party however favours the North Central as the region to produce the national chairman. Meanwhile, All Progressives Congress (APC) youths, under eagis of Progressives Youths have begun intense lobbying to ensure adequate representation of young people in the new leadership of the party ahead of the forthcoming national convention. Participants were drafted from the six South Western states and Kwara. This agenda is driven by the All Progressives Congress National Youth Lobby Committee under the leadership of Ismaeel Ahmed.