A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Murtala Ajaka has tackled the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, over his reluctance to support the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Ajaka who is the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Saturday demanded the resignation of Ngige for not coming out publicly to endorse the candidature of Tinubu who is the candidate of his party for the 2023 presidential election.
Ngige, who featured in a Channels Television’s programme, Politics Today, on Friday, was silent on his preferred candidate between Tinubu and the Labour Party presidential flag bearer, Peter Obi.
When asked by the presenter about the candidate he would support in the 2023 presidential election, the minister said: “I’m not active in politics for now because I am facing a national assignment. Using statistics and mere figures don’t mean anything.
“Both of them are my friends. My choice will be in the ballot box. It is a secret ballot. I shouldn’t tell Nigerians what I would do secretly.”
However, in a statement, Ajaka described the minister’s remark as unacceptable.
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He reminded Ngige that Tinubu and other stakeholders laboured to bring the current administration to power in 2015.
The statement read: “The presidential primary election had long ended and the party had settled for the choice of Senator Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, hence all the party leaders should put their ambitions behind them for now to deliver the party’s presidential ticket.
“It is expected of a serving minister in an APC government to be a trusted Apostle of Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s presidency in 2023, who along other party leaders laboured to ensure the enthronement of the same government in 2015 which they are now serving in.
“Chief Ngige and other APC appointees, especially in the federal cabinet should not forget in a hurry that they are holding onto party’s mandate, hence the need to protect it with whatever it requires, but if they can no longer protect the interest of the APC in public and that of our presidential candidate (Tinubu), I think the honourable thing to do is to step aside from the government formed by the APC.
“With this type of public comment from a sitting minister in a ruling party who cannot declare on national television his choice of presidential candidate, how on earth is the party expected to fare in the forthcoming presidential election?”