The North-Central All Progressives Congress, APC, Forum has asked Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, to stop playing “double game” and come clean on whether he is with President Bola Tinubu or working with those who are opposed to the President.
The Forum, in a statement by its Chairman, Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, frowned at recent comments made by Governor Sule concerning the political direction of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, bloc in the APC.
The CPC was one of the political parties that merged with others to form the APC. Lately, members of the bloc are being wooed to join the opposition coalition championed by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and ex-Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai.
In April, former Nasarawa State Governor, Tanko Al-Makura led some chieftains of the CPC bloc to pledge allegiance to President Bola Tinubu and the APC, declaring that the group would not join the coalition.
However, a former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, countered Al-Makura and his group. Malami insisted that the former President Muhammadu Buhari camp of the CPC bloc, which he is part of, is the one that should speak on whether or not it is joining the opposition coalition and not Al-Makura’s group.
Nasarawa State governor, Sule, speaking at a reception in Lafia on May 3, 2025, backed Malami’s position, saying: “There is only one person in this world that can decide for the CPC, and that is our father, Muhammadu Buhari. Nobody speaks for the CPC more than this man. The day he says CPC is with you, then CPC is with you.
“The day he says CPC is not with you, it is not with you. Because he is the CPC himself. He keeps carrying his 12 million voters along with him everywhere he goes.”
Reacting to the development, the North-Central APC Forum noted that Sule’s comments show that he is not in agreement with the earlier pledge of allegiance to Tinubu by the CPC bloc led by Al-Makura, his predecessor as governor of Nasarawa State. Nasarawa is part of North-Central Nigeria.
The APC Forum observed that ever since Al-Makura led a group of other leaders of the defunct CPC, including former Katsina State governor Bello Masari, to pledge the bloc’s loyalty to Tinubu, those in ex-President Buhari’s camp have been trying to counter and downplay the development.
The Forum, in the statement signed by Zazzaga, a member of the APC campaign council in the 2023 election, stressed that there was no reason for Sule to continue to speak on the political direction of the CPC bloc after Al-Makura led other leaders of the bloc to pledge loyalty to Tinubu.
“Abdullahi Sule should stop playing double game and come out clean on whether he is with President Bola Tinubu or working with elements in the camp of the former President, who we know do not want the success of the Tinubu administration.
“Nobody will say he is more CPC than Alhaji Tanko Al-Makura, former Governor of Nasarawa State. It is on the records that Al-Makura was the only person who was able to become the governor of a state on the platform of the CPC. No other person achieved that feat.
“Having a governor, in the person of Tanko Al-Makura, gave the CPC a major advantage in the negotiations that resulted in the formation of the APC – which ultimately led to President Muhammadu Buhari’s APC government in 2015.
“He (Al-Makura) was the highest ranking officer in the CPC platform. Even former President Muhammadu Buhari was not able to produce a governor for the CPC in Katsina, his home state. So nobody will lay claim to the leadership of CPC apart from Al-Makura. If Abdullahi Sule is coming out to say that nobody speaks for the CPC bloc apart from former President Muhammadu Buhari, it’s like he is not happy with the endorsement of President Bola Tinubu by Al-Makura and other leaders of the CPC bloc. It means he is against the action they took.
“We are forced to believe that Governor Abdullahi Sule is working with those who do not want the success of President Bola Tinubu’s administration,” parts of the statement said.
The Forum in the same vein noted that Sule was not involved with the CPC, and was also not in the picture during the formation of the APC.
“We are not surprised that Abdullahi Sule is saying the things he said because he does not understand the history of CPC and the APC but we advise that he should stop talking of political issues which he does not understand,” the statement added.
The North-Central APC Forum alleged that the Nasarawa governor did not support Tinubu during the party’s presidential primaries.
“When Tinubu emerged President we expected that he will turn around to support his administration but he is showing that he is not with us. This is so because he is associating with those who are not with the President.
“The North-Central APC Forum is asking Governor Abdullahi Sule to make his position clear. He should say whether he is with those who are working against President Bola Tinubu, who he appears to to hobnobbing with at the moment. If not he should avoid those people and sincerely support the President,” the statement said.
The Forum highlighted Sule’s initial opposition to Tinubu’s tax reform bills as an indication that he might not be fully committed to the President.
They also pointed to comments made by the Nasarawa governor in October 2024, in which he noted that reform policies introduced by the President are causing hardship in the country.
“As stakeholders of the North-Central who have endorsed President Bola Tinubu for a second term in 2027, we salute the Tanko Al-Makura-led CPC bloc for standing behind Mr. President and rejecting the coalition, which we believe is a a gang up by self-serving politicians to reverse the progress made in the country since May 29, 2023.
“The true leaders of the CPC bloc, led by Tanko Al-Makura, have spoken out to pledge loyalty to President Bola Tinubu and the APC. So any debate on who should speak for the bloc is not necessary. Anybody who is truly with Mr. President would not be making any comments to counter or downplay the significance of the endorsement of the President by Tanko Al-Makura and other leaders.
“The impression that Abdullahi Sule, Abubakar Malami and others are giving to Nigerians is that they are opposed to the endorsement of President Bola Tinubu by the CPC bloc. They can’t oppose the endorsement and also claim they are with President Bola Tinubu.
“If they are truly with the President, we advise that they fall in line with other progressives and work for the success of President Bola Tinubu’s administration and his reelection in 2027,” the APC Forum added.