By Agbenu Oyale, Abuja
Ahead of the 2023 general elections, former governor of Borno State and a chieftain of ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, has said the goal of the party is to remain in power in the next 50 years.
To achieve this, he said APC needs a rugged captain capable of navigating its ship through Nigeria’s murky water of politics.
Sheriff, who spoke at an interactive session with some journalists in Abuja weekend, said with the expected exit of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023, the APC needed to reposition itself to remain relevant.
He said: “You all know that today as a political party, we are about six and half years. It is a combination of different political parties that became APC and we also know that our President Muhammadu Buhari even before coming into APC had already made 12 million votes from the ANPP and CPC days.
‘’He brought that to the table and what are we going to face after the exit of His Excellency, the President?
“It is we the APC members that will tell the world that we are capable of getting their trust even when he finished his tenure.
‘’Doing that, you need everybody. You need people who know the history of the party, where we are coming from, who know the history of this country, someone who has been in different aspects of life and we need to work together, we need to build bridges across the country.
“Today, as a party we are only six years in government, our aspiration is for the APC to be in government in the next 30 to 40, 50 years. Doing that doesn’t come on a platter of gold, we need to put in hard work.
‘’Therefore, I believe it is important for me to reach out to all leaders of our party; the youths, the women, different organizations to tell them that we must come together to get our party to run for the next 30, 40, 50 years by the grace of God.
“Doing that you need a rugged captain, you don’t need a captain that will capsize. A ship has to be navigated by a knowledgeable person who knows the waters and I believe I can do that for our party if given the opportunity by party men and women who are the decision-makers.