A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara, Mallam Saliu Mustapha, has declared that if elected, he is poised at reconciling the warring members of the party in the state.
Mustapha, an ex-Kwara Gubernatorial aspirant, and APC chairmanship aspirant said, his first step will be to reconcile all the tendencies in Kwara APC.
He stressed that he doesn’t belong to any faction of the party in the state.
The Elites Watch reports that the crisis in the state chapter of APC has grown into a crescendo, leaving members of the party to conduct parallel congresses across the party hierarchy during the congress of the party in Kwara.
The state governor, Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq group Is currently at loggerheads with the loyalists of the Honorable Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on one hand, and other chieftains of the party.
Addressing newsmen in Lagos on Friday, Mustapha stated that he is doing the best he could to manage the crisis in the state.
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 added that he had been endorsed by every “well-meaning stakeholder” of the party thereby promising to ensure that APC continues to deliver on its electoral promises and improve accountability in the party.
He further stated that he would also deepen internal democracy in the party by allowing popular candidates to emerge.
In his concluding address, Mustapha maintained that as the potential chairman of the party, he would be a team player and give every member of the party a sense of belonging.