For the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the die is cast today to pick its presidential candidate. But there has been a tug of war over which modality to choose, particularly on the consensus arrangement.
President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday cleared all doubts about where he stands on the choice of a presidential candidate for the party, declaring before the party’s 14 governors of northern states that he has “no preferred candidate,” and has “anointed no one.”
The president also said that he was determined to ensure that “there shall be no imposition of any candidate on the party.”
This is as the APC governors of northern governors extraction have maintained their initial position that power should go to the south after President Buhari’s eight years in office.
This comes amid preparations for the party’s convention to elect its presidential candidate for the 2023 general elections.
•The president’s position
Speaking at a meeting with the governors at the State House, Abuja, President Buhari said the party is important and its members must be respected, as well as made to feel they are important.
The President said he has a clear mind about what he was doing, and asked the APC governors to feel the same way.
A statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, quoted the president as saying, “You were elected as I was. Have a clear mind as I have. God gave us the chance; we have no reason to complain.
“We must be ready to take pain as we take the joy. Allow the delegates to decide. The party must participate, nobody will appoint anybody.”
•Plots, counterplots
Kogi State Governor and a presidential aspirant, Yahaya Bello, caused a stir when he angrily walked out of the party’s governor’s meeting over the rumoured consensus candidate announced by the party’s National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu.
Adamu, according to reports, had announced the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, as the party’s presidential consensus candidate at the meeting of the National Working Committee (NWC).
His adoption of Lawan as the consensus candidate was against the position of 11 APC northern governors, who endorsed that power must shift to the South.
Adamu told the NWC that he arrived at the choice of the Senate President after consultation with President Muhammadu Buhari.
But earlier, President Buhari had a meeting with the APC governors where he said he had not anointed any candidate.
Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum (NGF), Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong, and Governor Abubakar Bagudu of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) had said they had come to affirm the position of the northern governors that the party’s candidate in the presidential election shall come from the southern part of the country.
The northern governors apologised to the president for the leakage of their signed memorandum, which according to him, was not in support of any particular candidate, He also gave assurances to the president on their readiness to accept his leadership on the matter.
However, briefing State House correspondents at the end of their meeting with the president, Lalong said, “We had a meeting this afternoon with the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, our dear President Muhammadu Buhari, and this meeting is also in line with part of the consultations that Mr. President had.
“Of course, Mr. President had a meeting with us governors and series of people, but at the APC Northern Governors’ Forum, we sat down, we reviewed a lot of things in this country, and we discussed at length the unity of this country; about the need for progress, and the need for inclusiveness, and also the need for accommodation.”
The Plateau Governor added, “We sat down in the last few days, and 13 out of 14 governors agreed. We decided to go and advise Mr. President. While we were on our way to advise Mr. President, I think part of the discussions that we had leaked out to the press.
“Well, we still went ahead and we told Mr. President. Mr. President, being a democrat, said no, he must listen to us, he would listen to us. And so, Mr. President granted the opportunity today.”
On the reason why they came to the Presidential Villa, Lalong said, “Our mission today is to reaffirm our position on that statement. We also apologised to him that that statement was made by all of us, and we reaffirm the position, but we apologised that the probe of the statement leaked out before even our consultations with him.
“However, it is now in the message, not the messenger. So, Mr. President was very happy. He took our position and out of that discussion, Mr. President, as a believer in the democratic process, believes that any candidate must emerge through a transparent process, and he emphasised that.”
According to Lalong, “Mr President told us that for this election, for now, he has no anointed candidate and, therefore, directed that the Progressive Governors Forum meet with the National Working Committee of the party to agree and proffer further solutions and recommendations for his succession.
“I am sure this will be the last of consultations. So, we are directed that after this, our chairman of Progressive Governors’ Forum has also summoned a meeting for five o’clock today, and after that meeting, we’ll make further suggestions to Mr. President.
“For emphasis, those of you who read it, I have a copy of what we wrote, which was already out of the press, and I said we wrote it and we stand by it; that in the interest of unity, in the interests of peace, we recommended that and also justice, we recommend that the next president should come from the south.”
He added, “I told you that the president believes in the democratic process, but even during the democratic process, there are consultations, there is consensus. It is also part of the democratic process. Even our constitution provides for that; it says consensus and then the election, either direct or indirect.
“So, what we’re doing is part of the build-up towards the election. What we’re also saying is a recommendation as we think that will bring out a very peaceful process.”
•Northern govs insist on southern president
No sooner had the NGF chair finished his briefing than the Kogi State helmsman, Bello enacted his drama that was suggestive that some plots were going on in the selection process for the presidential candidate of the ruling party.
Fielding questions on the statement made by one of their colleagues, Bello retorted that he was not part of the decision that power should shift to the south, even though the APC governors of northern extraction had said their decision was binding on all of them.
However, the Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, decided to speak on behalf of others.
He said, “We met before coming to meet with Mr. President; we met, all of us, including the governor of Kogi State.
“As you can see, he’s not the only aspirant, the governor of Jigawa State is also an aspirant, and he’s here with us, and we met. But the governor of Kogi State chose to excuse himself from meeting with Mr. President because he believes that he does not agree with our position.”
el-Rufai added, “There are 14 APC governors out of the 19 northern states. 13 of us are on one page on this subject, and we all came to see the president, but the governor of Kogi State excused himself, and it is within his democratic rights to excuse himself.
“But 12 out of 14 is a super majority. 13 out of 14 is an even bigger super majority, and the 13 of us met with the president today. What our leader has communicated to you is a summary of the discussions with Mr. President.”
Reminded that Bello had said that he was not consulted before their meeting, el-Rufai said, “He was invited to the meeting, he had a clash, he didn’t make it, we proceeded to make…
“Look, I have said this in this hall over and over. I don’t know why people assume that when you have 100 people, everyone must agree before a decision can be taken. That is the key to analysis paralysis.
“When the majority, or even a super majority, like 12 out of 14, takes a decision, everyone is bound. There is no time that everyone will agree on an issue. It is part of human nature. But what is the majority view of northern governors? We represent the majority, indeed a supermajority.”
On his part, Lalong said, “Also, in any case, please to the question. His name is not on our list, we didn’t write his name. So, even without writing his name, it shows that he was not part of it.”
Bagudu tried to smoothen the rough edges, trying to explain why the northern governors decided that power should shift to the south.
Bagudu said, “Well, look with 22 governors, APC with a president that has delivered on democratic dividend across the breadth of this country has everything going for it.
“What is the political brinkmanship that we need to bring so that every component of Nigeria will feel important? As I said, there are northern candidates for northern extraction, and we are not ignoring their capacity or their interest.
“But we felt that if political expediency can encourage a step that will bring more peace, and resonate with everyone across Nigeria, we are bold enough to see it.
Remember, the main opposition party, the PDP, even has zoning in their constitution. But when it comes to the selection of candidates, they ignored sections of Nigeria that are saying it is our turn.
“Our party, we don’t even have zoning in our constitution, but because of knowing our president, how magnanimous he is, how equitable he is, that’s why we felt comfortable to make a recommendation to him that even though we don’t have zoning, Mr. President, can we consider this?”
•Stalemate in South
Meanwhile, even hours before its presidential primary election, governors, and leaders of the APC were yet to agree on a consensus presidential candidate for the 2023 polls.
As 2,340 delegates of the governing party arrived in Abuja ahead of the party’s special convention to pick its presidential flag bearer, there was a flurry of meetings of leaders, governors, and presidential aspirants from the South-West region to pick one of the aspirants from the zone as the consensus candidate of the APC.
Last night, a meeting was scheduled to be held at the Asokoro residence of former Ogun State governor, Olusegun Osoba, purportedly at the instance of the directive by President Muhammadu Buhari and northern APC governors that the South should produce the next president of Nigeria.
It was reported exclusively that at a meeting with all the presidential aspirants of the APC in Aso Villa, Buhari told party stakeholders that the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) bloc of the party should be allowed to produce his successor.
This necessitated the withdrawal of Jigawa State governor, Abubakar Badaru from the presidential race, just as other aspirants from the North were expected to follow suit.
As of yesterday night, the South-West governors and leaders were yet to agree on a consensus candidate as instructed by the president that they should hold consultations amongst themselves “and with the party, to build a consensus in a manner that would help the party reduce the number of aspirants, bring up a formidable candidate and scale down the anxiety of party members.”
The aspirants were unable to pick a consensus presidential candidate because all of them, including Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; APC leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Ekiti State governor, Kayode Fayemi, and Senator Ibikunle Amosun refused to step down for anybody.
A report puts it succinctly: “Each of the aspirants is insisting that if there must be a consensus, he should be the anointed one.”
This is even as leaders from the South-East are insisting that the zone must produce the next president in 2023.
Given the development, President Buhari last night met with members of the National Advisory Council of the APC at the presidential villa where he asked them to deploy their diverse interests, spheres of influence, and expectations in the search for a credible presidential candidate from the south.
He told them that as members of the National Advisory Council of the APC, he recognises the fact that they “similarly possess the collective ability to ensure our victory at the 2023 polls by strengthening the stability and unity of the party.
A statement by presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, noted that President Buhari assured the meeting with members of the APC caucus, as he did to the governors and the aspirants, that in the interest of the nation and the party, he would lead the transition processes and on-going consultations, “till we successfully choose our candidate for the 2023 presidential elections and record our third straight victory, thereafter, by God’s grace.”
ThisNigeria