 Welcome back. You're still watching The Breakfast on Plus TV Africa and now to a first major conversation this morning. The race through the all-progressive Congress Convention hasn't been smooth following intra-party crisis, especially court cases against its national leadership as well as in some state chapters where you have parallel elected executives. Reprieve only recently came the way of a Governor Mai Malabuni-led Ketaka and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of the party following the collapse of a factional CECPC led by Prince Mustafa Adu of the Young Progressives Movement. The convention slated for February 26th a will elect national officers for the party, but there seems to be no clear plan as to how to do this, especially for the position of national chairman, which is very important in the scheme of things as far as 2023 is concerned. The different blocks that form the party are atoned between whether to have a consensus candidate or not, with members of the two leading blocks that form the party that defunct Congress for Progressive Change CPC and the Action Congress of Nigeria ACN set to be in a battle for the soul of the party. Can the All Progressives Congress resolve these issues in order to have a smooth Congress? I'm glad to say we're joined by a member of the All Progressives Congress, Honourable Sharif Banke, to discuss this. Honourable Banke, good morning to you. Thank you very much for your time. Yeah, good morning, good morning, and nice to be with you. All right. What's the issue regarding this consensus or not consensus candidate for the chairmanship of the party? And how important is that, is it that you have, or is that role of chairmanship of the party here? It's between the legacy parties, CPC and the ACN block in the All Progressives Congress. Well, thank you so much for giving me opportunity to be with you on the breakfast program of the Obligative of the Plus TV. First and foremost, I serve as the world congress chairman in Akwae Bomb State, and I again serve as the local government congress chairman in Akwae Bomb State as a young person. And again, I serve as the state congress chairman in Akwae Bomb State. And I knew the role I played in making sure that we have a successful Congress in that state. And I have the experience in the party politics. What I would like to say is that, you know, surely APC is a formation of four legacy parties and are then joined by new PDP when we form the party. And the four legacies, like you rightly mentioned, the CPC, ACN, ANPP, and AMGAR partially. And again, new PDP joined us after the formation. And of course, when four political parties come together, of course, there will be a different idea because all the parties came with a different idea, different way of thinking, different blueprints and what have you, and at the end of the day came together to harmonize their positions to win power in Nigeria in 2015, which by the special grace of God we've succeeded in winning the election in 2015. And of course, when you see the formation of even the government since 2015, it's an all-inclusive government where each and every party was given the five people from all the different political parties who are considered in the formation of the government. And again, when you look into the leadership, even in the National Assembly 17, when you look at the Senate president, Staraki, even in the Eighth Assembly, Staraki is from new PDP, of course, even Dogara himself from new PDP, and again, the president is from CPC and the vice president is from ACN. And again, when you look at it, even in the 2019, after the 2019 election as well, when you see the speaker is ACN, the Senate president is ANPP, the Senate president is ANPP, and then the national chairman of the party, Osho Mule, is also ACN, and Mr. President is CPC. So that is how we've been, in fact, governing the country, and nobody can say this group of people are sidelined or so on, except the person have personal interests. And of course, in situations like this, whether one like it or not, you must expect misunderstanding among the stakeholders of both the critical and non-critical stakeholders in the party. So at the end of the convention, the upcoming convention, I know that, of course, there are a lot of discussions going on in the country, both in the ANPP and the opposition parties. But the way things are going on, I know that at the end of the day we will conduct the Congress, the National Convention successfully, and the leadership will actually emerge. And of course, it wouldn't be like a different CPC affairs or either ACN affairs or ABGAA or ANPP affairs, but definitely, I came from Borno, and we came from the background of the ANPP. And other people, of course, Borno Yobi as Zampera, though Zampera a little bit, you know, as a little bit of destruction went to PDP and the governor is now in APC. So and of course, ACN also, they had their own governors as of that time and so on. The CPC has, you know, Nassarawa and Makura and so on. So the point is that the party is becoming more interesting, and that is why the gladiators are running for the national chairman of our great party. And of course, at the right time, the party will come up with the blueprint of even the National Convention, maybe probably by this week. I am not certain, but it may be next week, where the zoning formula might be out, where the committee zoning, co-zoning formula committees will be out and they will now strategize on the whole thing so that there will be no issues. Once they do the zoning, then the whole thing will now fall into the rightful places and will conduct the national convention by the grace of God successfully. So there is no, there will be no round call. There will be no round call by the grace of God prior, during and after the national convention as far as we are concerned in the ABC. All right. Honorable Sherif Banki, let's still stay with that because there are a lot of quarters that have doubted the fact that there's a tendency that the 26th of February might not be very tentative for the party due to some of the issues that surrounds it. For instance, it's been said that the date was actually picked just to make less of some of the controversies that are going on. And there's a lot of dissatisfaction with the ketika committee and what have you. So what is really, really the possibility that the 26th of February will happen for the APC as our convention? See, misunderstanding in politics is always natural and you can run away from it. Whether one like it or not, there must be superior arguments before every action takes place in the political party. And the dates, okay, before now people are saying the ketika committee doesn't want to conduct the Congress or the convention or so on. But now that they've fixed 26, and when you look at the scenario, they've fixed the convention. What did the guideline of the exercise is clearly stated. They said they have to inaugurate the state chairman on 3rd of February, which they did so. And that was the beginning of the, and also they talk about the reconciliation. They started with the reconciliation, the submission of the report by the Abdulla, the more late committee, the reconciliation committee. And then the inauguration of the ketika, sorry, the inauguration of the chairman-elect in all the 36th and the FCT, which would be exception of Kano and Sokoto, they did of the remaining 35 already. So, and now the next thing is to release these subcommittees of the national convention. And of course, every committee will be saddened with difference, but see this thing, the whole thing is a process that had to be followed one after the other. You cannot just stand up in the morning and say, I will go on Congress or either a national convention. And this process started right from the registration exercise of the party, and which we did so successfully. Again, and again, you know, values, elections took place, values, primary elections took place. As it is now, as it is now, there will be even election, I think on 26 of this, of this month by Aine, which won by elections in various states of either House of Assembly, or even senatorial elections in the country. So the 26th, that the national working committee fix is still feasible. And you know, of course, sometime you may not, you know, predict the what might be. But if I am very much optimistic that even if the party suggested for maybe adjournment or maybe one or two weeks, I will not be surprised. I won't be bothered because of having known the difficulties in conducting the Congress where you have to accommodate millions of people's interest. You have to accommodate thousands of stakeholders' interests. Every state's have their own different peculiarity. And of course, the leadership, thank God that the ABC in the SEPA and the National Ma'amai Maladi, our own caretaker committee, national chairman of the party, is doing his best. And in fact, the best thing that ever happened to ABC is to have him as national chairman. Even though for him, only God knows where our party will be at this point in time. So honestly, the party is well prepared and the party is doing its best to make sure that this Congress, actually the National Commission actually take place on 26th of February. And being a member of the Inner Circle and the ABC, I know that the National Caretaker Committee are so much interested and are doing everything humanly possible to beat the deadline. Okay. But it's interesting that you said, you know, in response to Messi's question that I'm, you know, you're looking forward to a peaceful and unified national convention of the party. And I'm happy that you informed us that you were one of those who supervised or superintendent over the world Congresses in Aquabomb state and the local government Congresses in Aquabomb state. And I'm sure you may have been, I don't know, you may have been there for the state activity as well, where the state chairman were elected. And I'm sure you know more than I do, more than I do that. In Aquabomb state, you had three parallel state chairman. One from the Gosselakpabio faction, Senator Gosselakpabio faction, former governor. One from the Senator Tainang faction. And one from the Senator John Akbao Doedega faction, who himself is the secretary of this Ketaka and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee. Three, sir, three state chairman. And Akbao himself was kicking when the state chairman were inaugurated at Buhari House in Abuja last week. You know, apart from Aquabomb state, you have other states. Kayamo has been kicking because his own, you know, block lost out, his faction lost out. Magnus Abbey in River State has been kicking. Lime Mohammed has been kicking. Areba Shola has been kicking. I can mention some more names. How can the APC surround this? Let's not ignore this. Let me tell you something. When you say faction, it's only in a situation where the committee members are split it. Some, in fact, attended different congresses. That is when you will now call there's a faction in that particular states. And if all these seven committee members went to one venue and conduct the congress without any one of them going to attend any other congress that will might take place or either took place in that state, there's no congress. There's no faction in that state. And besides, as the chairman of the World Local Government and State Congress in that state, I did not see anywhere a functional congress took place in that state. And in fact, during the World Congress, myself and my committee members have supervised thoroughly well around all the local governments. And I, in fact, assigned my committee members to each of the political zones in Aquabomb state, Ecuador, Penay, Iwiose Rhetoric District, and, again, Eckett's Rhetoric District, which they did so. And the people came out en masse. We have all the evidence, the videos and what have you. And in fact, even our party is using Aquabomb State Congress as one of the best congress that was conducted. And they are using it as a justification. So I am very, very, you know, very happy with the way and manner we conducted the congress in that state. The other fact, the people you talk about, I don't even know where their own congress took place in that state, because I was there throughout the state. And the congress that I conducted, the INEC, the police, the DSS, all of them were in attendance. They were, in fact, the all roads. In fact, they even wrote a letter of commendation to us and to our party on the way and manner we conducted the congresses. And, again, secondly, of course, like I said earlier, you can't run away from, you know, from misunderstanding in the political party. Of course, most of these people, they want to dominate the halting. And if the thing did not favor them, they would just come out and start making all sorts of lies against people. They would start saying that some person have hijacked this and that. OK, the man that you talk about, for instance now, the Senator John Appan that you talk about, who is the National Secretary of the Caretaker right now. He ran for governorship election in 2011 in Akwaibom state. He ran for governorship election in 2015. He ran for governorship election again in 2019. And apart from 2011, he was never given a ticket in under the political party. And now by the grace of God, he's a National Secretary of the party. And everything opened the way and manner he was castigated in the party and so on. He never bothered to leave the party. He remained in the LPC. And most of these people that you mentioned now are beneficiaries of what the National Secretary himself will do. But you say in Akwaibom that he remained in the APC. Sheriff Banke, Magnus Abbey also remained in the APC. But we are well aware of what happened in River state in 2019 where your party did not appear on the ballot. Every state has its own peculiarity. River state issue is different from that of Akwaibom state. And when you go to Rivers, you will be OK. In every state, the minister, where there is no governor in that state of the APC, the minister is the leader of that party. The Magnus Abbey acknowledged that this should be number one. And secondly, what happened in 2019, APC doesn't even have candidate in that election. And what happened? Because of the misunderstanding between Magnus Abbey and Amici, and Magnus Abbey went to court and up to the Supreme Court and ensured that there is no candidate for APC in that state. And now Congress was held. And of course, because of the way and manner, because of what they went through in the last convention, this time around, they had to do the needful. They had to follow all the political sides. They have to follow all the standard rules and the guideline of the exercise in making sure that they conduct peaceful, free, and fair Congresses, which they did so. And the party acknowledged the Congress committee went to that state. After that, the appeal committee went there and reformed the Congress that was held by the committee. And again, the national working committee also adopted the report of the Congress committee and also that of the appeal committee from that state. So what is again, and again, the party set up a national reconciliation committee, which headed by the former governor of Nassarawa state, Senator Abdelay Ademou, to go around. And they went around and they received reports from both angles, from both quarters in all the states where there are grievances. And of course, they've made their position and submitted their report to the party, national working committee members, and they look into all these things. With the exception of Kano and Sokoto, like I told you earlier, there is no faction in anywhere in this country. And the party is doing its best now. The national chairman of the party now took charge of the, even the reconciliation in those two states. They are trying to make a compromise where they can bring both factions together to form a unity escorts starting from the world up to the state level in those states. So it's not something that is new, that is happening in the ABC. This thing is always bound to happen whenever there's Congress, definitely some people will become agreed. I like assuming now, I ran for election in 2019. And all of us that could not get the ticket in 2019, we had our own forum. We call it APC aspirants forum, which by the grace of God and the national secretary of that forum. And why did we, why do you think we come together just to understand ourselves, comes together and be a block in the APC and channel our grievances through the rightful direction. And Mr. President had to even organize a dinner to us and appeal to us, come to us, come to us and give us the reason why we should remain in the party and also go around the country and reconcile the agreed aspirants to have a holistic reconciliation nationwide being all of us as victims, victims of even, I may say, some of us of injustice in some states and because it's we that talks to ourselves. Honorable Sherry Banky, let's also look at this report that we have in front of us. It feels like it's an issue of consensus, especially for the position of the national chairman of the party. So we have reports saying that your party, the APC, you have stakeholders including members and loyalists of the party who have thrown their weights behind the Senate Service Committee, Senator Sani Musa for the position of national chairman. I mean, of course, we're looking at your convention that you say would definitely happen on the 26th. How are you taking it and how are other members of the party, I mean, taking this position? See, in the North Central alone, we have, yes, of course, we have the Sani Musa senator from Niger State. We have Senator Tanqu Al-Makura, a former governor of Nassarawa State. We have Mustafa Sani, from Para State, former deputy national chairman of CPC. Again, we have Mohamed Esu from Niger. In the North Central again, I think there's another person that also came out which I cannot recollect his name. In other zones also, we have other people that are running for that same position. The point is, when you see some people in the same consensus for Sani Musa, some interest group are calling for him to be given that opportunity for their own interests as well. In politics, of course, whether one like it or not, there are different group of interests in the party. And again, that are clamoring for their own choice of candidate. But, you know, of course, the party would want, at first, would want to have a consensus. And if the consensus did not succeed, that is when we will now have the election. Even though whether there's a consensus or elect whatever, you must do the voting. You must elect the leaders through ballot papers. So we will do so. But the consensus also is on the table as it is now. But the party did not decide it on anybody as it is now officially. So you said that the party has not thrown its weight behind Sani Musa? No, the party did not do that. If the party will do that, I am in a better position to know that. And in fact, the party did not even do its own in. How come? The party did not even do its own in. And even if they do that, critical stakeholders must come together from each and every states in Nigeria. And especially if the position is on to denote the national chairman, they have to come together and then decide on who, whom they will, you know, give the support. So as it is now, the party did not in any way throw its, you know, support to any of the candidates among those that are running for this position. So what modes of elect, what pattern would the party be adopting? You say, I mean, you were in a very better position to give us information. So would the party be adopting, you know, the consensus direct or indirect primaries for this election? Like I say, the party will always, our own party believe in managing crisis, reducing so much stress. And you know, of course, we have leaders with wisdom in the party, starting from the president downward. And of course, they will never want to create any rank or in the party. They will first suggest the subject, the consensus. And if the consensus is not, you know, it's not realistic or either feasible, they will of course go for the election. When they go for the election, the winner will take it. And that is as simple as ABC. That is simple as ABC. Just like even primary election, the party will prefer consensus and if the consensus will not take place, it's not realistic or maybe it's not accepted to the stakeholders. They will now go for the election because election is always second option. What is the position on this clamor by the CPC block in the party to produce the next national chairman, you know? They seem to be, you know, concerned that President Buhari exiting next year, power might fall on an ACN block member of the party as presidential candidate. And they need something to keep themselves relevant in the party. You are from AMPP. John Odege Oyegun was chairman of the party. He's also from the AMPP block. So this clamor by the CPC block to produce the national chairman. What are your thoughts on this? Because we hear the ACN is really also trying to get that position as well. When the, like I said earlier, as for me, when you ask me a personal opinion, I will tell you, I always look at competency, capacity, you know, of an individual, you know, I always use these two, you know, cardinal points as a heuristic, you know, to choose a leader. And of course, like I told you, of course there will be a different interest in the political party. A lot of people will come out like now. There are some people that are saying they want ACN to be chairman. And again, just like the way you mentioned, there are some people that want the ACPC also to hold that position. And like I told you, when you look at the composition of the government, you will understand that the president himself is ACA, is CPC. The vice president is ACN. Yes, I guess what I'm asking you, sorry to interrupt you there is, do you think the CPC would agree with them when they say it's their turn to produce the national chairman? No, the point is that like I told you, I'm a true believer of the CPC of a party and a loyal party member. Whatever that our stakeholders agreed, I will follow it 100%. And I, as for me, like I told you, my loyalty is to the party and to the presidents. Whatever direction that Mr. presidents and our party gives, that's where I would belong to. I'm a follower of the party. So the point is like I said, though there is, yes, of course, I acknowledge that there is agitation from the CPC that they want somebody from the CPC to become the chairman of the party. But of course, we cannot forget about the competency, capacity and what have you, that actually needed to pilot the affairs of the party. In the history of Nigeria, nobody in either ANPB, in between the ANPB or either, sorry, in between the PDP and the APC that ever spent four years as a national chairman apart from John Oyegun. That in most cases, you see somebody becomes chairman after one or two years, some even less than that, some after three years, they will be removed from this position. And a national chairman needed somebody with so much wisdom, somebody that is very accommodative, somebody that is extremely patient, somebody that is a very good listener, somebody that always makes stand for the, for people that doesn't have vulnerable people in the political party and somebody that can always take the truth to the power where it's supposed to be. And these are the kind of the person that we wanted. I can't just say, I want this somebody, that this person come from this party or this side of the party and so on. So that's my position all the time. And I tell people wherever I go. So would you be saying that the APC is looking for a consensus candidate ahead of this election? Of course, if consensus is realistic and feasible, the party will definitely go for a consensus. But if we realize that it may create problem or rank or in the party, we will allow it, everybody will just go for his election and then the leader or the chairman will emerge. All right, this issue of a delegates list is also a contentious one. You've acknowledged that they are factions or you've said they are not factions as far as you're concerned, but they are agitations, they are splits, you know, within the party in different states. And what's your thought on the belief that the next fight is gonna be about the delegates list? Has that been sorted out already? Are we going to be seeing maybe governors trying to control who becomes delegate? Are we gonna be seeing maybe political appointees trying to control who becomes the lead? Or even national assembly members who have been on a coalition course with the governors as far as the Electro-Act Amendment bill is concerned? The delegates are already elected during the Congress that we conducted. During the whole Congress we conducted, the delegates were elected. During the local government Congress, the three national delegates were elected. And who are the members of the delegates, the national convention delegates? Who are the three national delegates? The chairman and secretary of a political party of the local governments? The all the state working committee members of the party. The statutory delegates, the likes of the speaker, the general principal officers in states of the party, those are in the party. And again, the principal of the members of the House of Representatives, elected both president and former ones. These are people that are not already. It's not something that you just come and concoct or maybe or sit down and write the list of names, names of new delegates or something. These are people that were truly elected by their people and their respective local governments. In only 774 local governments, we have three delegates coupled with the chairman and secretary of those local governments. So it's not a new thing. It's not something that somebody can see at the comfort of his own to write a list and say, these are the delegates of the party. It's not done this way. Do you expect the issue of the YPM, the Young Progressive Movement that came up with Prince Mustafa Aldo and his fractional or parallel executive to pop up again? Or is that issue done and dusted with? When you look at it, I'm a young man and I don't believe in what they did. The point is that in most cases when you see some people acting different way, you may just say all they are also an interest group. Like I said, I'm a very loyal party man. My loyalty is to the party and to the president. So the point is that what happened? Last week, they went to the court themselves and withdrew their case. If you are aware, they did so. Why did they withdraw that? They said, since the convention date has been fixed and of course they want peace and so on and so on. That was their own reason of doing that. So you can imagine and they also realize you are their mistakes. So the point is when you are true believer of your own political party and actually want your party to succeed, you will never want to create a rank or misunderstanding. There are a lot of court judgments that fabled the present composition of the National Educator Committee led by Mahemala himself. The government Mahemala is excellency. So and why will you go contrary to this position? You can't succeed. You can't succeed at all. So the point is the party is very much self under the leadership of government Mahemala of your bestest. It's very much self. That is why as you can see a lot of people from other political parties joined us in the party, especially three sitting governors that joined us, the governor of Zamfara state, the governor of Cross-Universite and governor, a Wakaali governor in Eboni state. So and in fact Mahemala laid a very solid foundation to whoever that will emerge as the national chairman of our party and it's going to be a challenge to whoever that will emerge as the chairman of the party because he have to perform more than the national, the Mahemala, otherwise people will underestimate him or otherwise people will not appreciate what the chairman will actually do. A lot of members of the National Assembly both in the red chamber and the green chamber joined us in the APC because of the exemplary leadership of the national chairman of the party. And again, a lot of members of the State House of Assembly in various state joined us in the APC. So many big weeks in the PDP or other political parties also joined us in the APC as it is now. So what is, is it not better for us to commend the party and if there's any issue, any problem, there's a right channel to address that channel. You can just be on the media to castigate your leaders, to castigate your party, try to destroy your political party and also claim that you are a member of that political party or either someone that actually wanted the success of your political party. It doesn't make sense at all. Well, some of the concerns there has been raised especially with the movement that you have said and you have described them as an interest group. One of the issues I've talked about is the fact that youths are not being carried along. They talked about not taking young people along and the party has not quite considered and factored to young people and that they had the mandate of the president. I mean, where the president said young people should take over and do exploit and so it was based on this premise but it's quite interesting to see that all of this is panning out for the party even though some persons have actually doubted with the interest group and all of the issues that are going on lingering in the party, the visibility and the possibility of your party to have the elections under 26 but fingers across, let's see how things actually pan out for you. We do appreciate your time on the show. Honorable Sherif Banke, thank you so much for being part of the conversation this morning. Thank you so much and thank you so much but before I go I would like to tell you I'm a young man, I'm less than 40 years. Well, maybe you might just be in... Yes, I'm a young man but serve as the chairman of World Congress in Aguaibon, serve as chairman of the National Government Congress, serve as chairman of State Congress and I performed wonderfully we would go to Aguaibon and to the streets ask the core APC members in the state of what I did. So I am so much proud of myself, I am proud of what I did and as a young man I set a very good example to my own fellow young men and women in Nigeria, fellow young men in Nigeria. So the point is, how you look at it? How you look at it and how you fail it? You can't just say the party is not considered a young man. There are a lot of young men and women that work, in fact, that serve in the party during the last Congresses. So how can I say the party is not concerning, it doesn't have concern about the young people? I would never say so. Honourable Sheriff Banke, we have to let you go now. Thank you so much for making our time to be part of the breakfast this morning. We appreciate your time. Thank you so much. It's my pleasure. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, quite interesting and we'll be watching, of course, the PDP had thrown a gauntlet to the APC to say, we dare you to organise a national convention. We'll be watching that and see how it goes on 26th. There's still the breakfast on Plus TV Africa ahead. We have more discussions coming up. Stay with us.