From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Governor of Niger State, Mohammed Umar Bago, has commended President Bola Tinubu and the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for adopting a competitive approach to obtaining the party’s nomination forms and screening exercise.
Fielding questions from newsmen after submitting his expression of interest and nomination forms in Abuja yesterday, he said he was deeply impressed that farmers jointly purchased the forms for him to re-contest in next year’s governorship election.
While expressing his views on the exercise, Bago said: “It has been so far so good. So far so good. Democracy is in action. We want to thank the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, my father, President Bola Tinubu, for allowing the party to follow due process.
“Today, one of the exercises we have done is that every other person that has obtained forms will go and complete them, submit them and verify them before screening.
So, it does not isolate any governor or any senator or any House of Representatives or any State Assembly member.
“Everybody must appear before the party to take part in the exercise. So, this is very, very important,” he noted.
On his feelings over the gesture of farmers buying the forms for him, he said: “Yeah, it is exciting. It is elating. It is also humbling, because people who live from hand to mouth, because of some of the policies of this government, have been able to have more resources now on their own.
“They contributed money, some gave 1,000, some 2,000, and contributed over N50 million. In fact, right now, I still have an additional N100 million surplus from the money they gathered. So, actually, they got over N150 million and they used N50 million to buy the form for me. And that has also motivated me,” he said.
He further noted: “As you can see, last weekend, the First Lady of this country, my mother, was in Minna to flag off the distribution of mechanisation and also inputs for the 2026 farming season.”
He also spoke on the mode of primaries, consensus or direct, suggesting for Niger, “We are ready for both. We are trying to build consensus across the state, but where consensus cannot be built, then we will go for direct primaries.”
