Senator George Akume has vowed not to step down as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) to be become the Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Akume affirmed this on Thursday in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Yomi Odunuga.
The rebuttal followed media insinuations that he was one of the top politicians angling for the position of APC chairman vacated by Dr Abdullahi Ganduje.
“I am not in a hurry to abdicate my responsibility and the task that the President of the Federal Republic has placed before me. I am a firm believer in the principle that whatever God plans for you will surely come to pass. So, I can’t be in a race that I am not interested in.
“Everything that I have been in life has been given to me by the Almighty God through the instrumentality of people including President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. To say that I am one of the prominent politicians gunning for the position of the APC Chairman is completely false because I am in the process of ensuring that the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President and the government is realised so that Nigerians can enjoy the true dividends of democracy that they crave for. We are working day and night to deliver on these promises under the supervision of the President and we are totally committed to this,” Akume said.
The statement described the report as nothing but a fabrication meant to distract the SGF from the key responsibilities entrusted with him by President Bola Tinubu.
It insists Senator Akume was not jostling with anyone for the post of either the APC National Chairman or any other post in the party, noting his main focus, was to ensure that he did not in any way betray the intrinsic trust that President Tinubu reposed in him in ensuring that the Renewed Hope Agenda of the ruling party and the government was achieved within the targeted time frame.
“While Senator Akume believes that there are qualified candidates in the North-Central to vie for the National Chairmanship position should the party decide to zone the position to the North-Central geopolitical zone, he is of the opinion that what is paramount to him is to help in fast-tracking national development in line with the government’s Renewed Hope Agenda instead of getting entangled in the politics of who becomes the National Chairman of the party.
“The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation would appreciate, in the principle of fairness, that professionalism and the ethics of journalism should be taken seriously in reportage especially in writing stories that are as sensitive as this which are capable of heating the polity,” the statement said.
Olawale Ajimotokan
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