The National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje, has led the charge of the north`s claim to produce the next president after President Bola Tunubu`s second term.
Ganduje made the claim when the Northern Youth Forum visited the party national secretariat in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to him, “when a leader from the Northern part of this country was in office for eight years, we advocated that the next President in our party should come from the South.
And luckily enough, we worked very hard with the cooperation of Nigerians. Our President has come from the South and is going, inshallah, for second term, 2027. And then after that, it will be turned to the Northern part of this country.”
The APC leader further said that the misconceptions against the tax reform introduced by President Tinubu have been put to rest.
The former governor of Kano state said: “This tax reform, initially it was misunderstood, but in the course of time there was a lot of public engagement.
“I think people have come to understand the whole purpose of the tax reform. And we are happy that members of the National Assembly too, they are now fully conversant with the policy and they are ready to do the needful.”
Commending the Northern Youth Forum, Ganduje described the Forum as active and focused youth forum, because “I’m highly impressed with the data that you presented to me.
“This shows that you are not beating about the bush. You know precisely where you are going, you have articulated your agenda, you fished for useful election data. I’m highly impressed with that.
“So APC is ready to provide you with all the assistance that you need. I have even seen that you are assisting the government in public enlightenment for people to understand the tax reform agenda.”
While receiving members of the Tinubu Young Generation Forum at the party national secretariat, Ganduje acknowledged the challenges facing Nigeria, attributing them to long-standing issues that require bold corrective measures.
He said: “There is no doubt that many things went wrong over a long period of time, and it requires surgery before we can get it right.”
The Kano state former governor expressed confidence in President Tinubu’s policies, adding that the country is already seeing positive results, particularly in the economy.
“We are happy that we have started seeing the outcome of the reforms, especially on the economic front, and we believe this will continue to yield positive results so that the legacy and the Renewed Hope Agenda will be achieved,” he added.
Ganduje also outlined the APC’s commitment to strengthening its structures beyond election periods, insisting that governance should not be business as usual.
“We want to be active throughout the year, not just during elections. Even today, we have a meeting with the chairmen of our state branches to assure them that we will be attending their programs at the state level,” he stated.
He announced the establishment of a Progressive Institute to educate party members on its constitution, manifesto, and governance policies.
“The institution will also provide inputs for government policies to drive national development. You can see that, as we said, business is not as usual. We are making our party an institution that registers members, recruits people for elected and appointed offices, and supports the government in achieving its manifesto,” he explained.N54.2trn 2025 Budget Returns To Senate This Week, Says Akpabio
KINGSLEY BENNETH, ABUJA
ABUJA : The Senate would by Wednesday or Thursday this week, receive from the Committee on Appropriation, the report on N54.2trillon 2025 budget estimates.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, gave the assurance at Tuesday’s plenary while making remarks after debate on a bill seeking for establishment of a federal University of Agriculture in Abak, Akwa Ibom State.
Akpabio underscored the need for them to quickly end the debate for final work on the 2025 budget .
“You will observe that some of our colleagues are not in the Chamber because of the required final touches on the 2025 Appropriation bill , report of which will be laid before us tomorrow (Wednesday) or next tomorrow (Thursday) this week.
He said, “So we will need to close early to allow for collective efforts in that direction for final consideration and passage of the 2025 Appropriation Bill.”
Recall that both the Senate and the House of Representatives had earlier fixed January 31, 2025 for passage of the N49.7trillion earlier proposed budget for 2025 by President Bola Tinubu .
However before the date , both chambers shifted their resumption from Christmas and New year recess from January 31, 2025 to February 4, 2025 the very day they both received communication from President Bola Tinubu on increase of total expenditure profile of the proposed budget from N49.7trillion to N54.2trillion.
Both Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives , Hon Tajudeen Abbas in their separate remarks after reading the letter , said the budget proposals would have to be reprocessed for inclusion of additional N4.5trillion .
Specifically Akpabio after reading the letter, urged the committee on Appropriations to expedite action on the request for possible passage of the budget before the end of February .
Apparently in line with the expeditious consideration of the request, Akpabio during plenary on Tuesday, announced that a report on the now increased budget size of N54.2 trillion will be laid in the Senate on Wednesday or Thursday this week.
