Ngige asked to resign from the cabinet if he cannot back Tinubu as the APC's candidate

LABOUR and employment minister Dr Chris Ngige has been asked by several senior members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to resign from the party over his refusal to support its presidential candidate Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Next February, Nigerians go to the polls to elect a new president and at the moment, there are four frontrunners in the contest. These include former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), former Lagos State governor Asiwaju Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), ex-Anambra State governor Obi of the Labour Party and former Kano State governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party.

Speaking yesterday on the Channels Television’s programme, Politic Today, on Friday, Dr Ngige hinted that he remains undecided about which presidential candidate to support in next year's election as he remains torn between Asiwaju Tinubu and Governor Obi. In a swift response to this assertion, Murtala Ajaka, the APC's deputy national publicity secretary, berated Dr Ngige and other APC political appointees for failing to back its candidate.

Mr Ajaka said: “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 with 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 the party’s mandate.

"Hence, there is a 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, 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 a presidential candidate, how on earth is the party expected to fare in the forthcoming presidential elections?”