…as youths demand in a peaceful request!
By Lanre Oloyede, Abuja
There are strong indications that the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is still considering adopting former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as its consensus candidate for the presidential election scheduled for next year.
In what appears to give great support to this position as making Jonathan APC’s standard bearer, there was a peaceful protest yesterday at the National Secretariat of the party.
This newspaper witnessed the protest by thousands of youths who carried placards with various inscriptions demanding that the former president be adopted as the consensus candidate of the ruling party.
The youths under the auspices of “Goodluck Ambassadors for Nigeria” were led by Comrade Umar Waja who said that they had to assemble in Abuja, the nation’s capital, to sensitise Nigerians on the importance of calling on the former president to vie for the office of the president.
Comrade Umar Waja added that they were calling on President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Working Committee (NWC) of APC to adopt Goodluck Jonathan as their consensus candidate for the good of the country.
Reacting to questions that Jonathan did not undergo screening, Comrade Waja said: “Mr. President has made it clear that as far as the governors are concerned, they have adopted their own concept of bringing out their successors, and so, they should also allow him to bring his successor. That is why we want Mr. President to bring in Jonathan as consensus candidate.”
“At this crucial time, we know Jonathan will lead this country very well. If Jonathan is the consensus candidate, he will win the election convincingly”, he said.
The peaceful protesters also took out time to remind Nigerians that Jonathan had made a record in the course of nation’s polity given the way he relinquished power to then General Muhammadu Buhari.
“It was the first time we witnessed a smooth handover, when a sitting president willingly submitted that he was defeated in a democratic process.
“Such a thing never happened before. We saw it for the first time. It is therefore not surprising that today, we all see and watch with great admiration how our own Jonathan is going all over the world, with head held high, doing good international assignments that uplift the image of Nigeria”, they further stated.
Though the Chairman of the APC Presidential Screening Committee and former governor of Edo State, Mr. John Odigie-Oyegun said yesterday that former President Jonathan was not among the 23 aspirants his Committee screened, there were indications last night that President Muhammadu Buhari may likely pick him as the consensus candidate.
Buhari had demanded from the 22 governors on the platform of the party to concede to him the right to appoint his successor, which is a leaning towards the adoption of a consensus candidate.
The governors were expected to pass on their resolution to the National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu for onward transmission to Buhari.
It was learnt that 18 out of the 22 governors adopted the consensus candidate approach, while the remaining four were said to have insisted that all the cleared aspirants should stand for election by the delegates.
