By Danmaliki Dauda
The reported plan by Nasarawa State APC Chairman Aliyu Bello to organize a protest against former Governor and Senator Tanko Al-Makura, accusing him of fueling the wave of defections hitting the party in the state, is not only misguided; it is dead on arrival. It is a desperate attempt to shift blame for a crisis the party leadership itself created.
The singular issue driving the mass exits from the Nasarawa APC is not any covert encouragement from Al-Makura. It is the sham governorship primary elections that systematically denied both aspirants and ordinary party members any meaningful participation in the process. When a party conducts gubernatorial primaries that are widely seen as predetermined, exclusionary, and lacking transparency, the natural consequence is resentment, loss of confidence, and eventual defection. No amount of protest against a respected elder will paper over that failure.
Across the North Central, Nasarawa , and the old Plateau-Benue political belt, one figure stands out as a consistent, unapologetic Tinubu loyalist, a proven mobilizer, and a respected northern stakeholder: former Governor Tanko Al-Makura. He is not a recent convert or a fair-weather supporter. He is a founding member of the APC who came from the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) bloc, the same platform that produced Muhammadu Buhari of blessed memory. In the difficult early days when the opposition was being forged, Al-Makura was among the few who stood firm. As President Bola Ahmed Tinubu himself once noted, Al-Makura delivered a “sweeping victory as an opposition candidate for the Nasarawa governorship in 2011” and played a “leading role in the events that led to the merger that gave birth to the APC in 2013.”
President Tinubu has never hidden his regard for that contribution. He has publicly acknowledged Al-Makura’s role in building the APC from the ground up and in advancing democratic politics in the North. That confidence has been repeatedly demonstrated under the current administration. President Tinubu has continued to entrust Al-Makura with responsibilities: he serves as Chairman of the Universal Basic Education Commission Board, an appointment retained when the President constituted the UBEC board in December 2025. He was also appointed North-Central Coordinator of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors structure, a role in which official leadership information continues to identify him as coordinating activities across the North-Central.
Al-Makura’s commitment has gone beyond titles. During the inauguration of Renewed Hope Ambassadors activities in Nasarawa, he publicly reaffirmed his dedication to grassroots engagement, party unity, and President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope programme. In February 2026, he further demonstrated that commitment by donating a six-storey building in Abuja to serve as the national secretariat of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors.
In Nasarawa State today, Al-Makura remains the compass. His support for President Tinubu’s victory and continued success is clear, consistent, and beyond mere words. Those who now seek to paint him as the source of the party’s internal bleeding are looking in the wrong direction. The defections are a direct product of poorly conducted primaries that shut out legitimate stakeholders. You cannot exclude people from the process and then act surprised when they walk away.
Aliyu Bello and those aligned with him should continue to lie on the beds they made rather than organize protests against a man whose loyalty to the APC’s founding vision and to President Tinubu has never been in doubt.
This is political laziness at its worst: wasting time and energy fighting the President’s committed supporters while doing absolutely nothing to win new ground, broaden his support base, or strengthen the APC.
Attempts to scapegoat Al-Makura will not restore confidence, recover lost members, or erase the memory of a primary process that many party faithful still regard as a sham. The protest is dead on arrival because the facts are not on its side.
Danmaliki Dauda writes from abuja