*As 2 major political parties pick presidential candidates from North
*PDP picked Fmr VP, Atiku Abubakar, N/East; APC roots for Ahmed Lawan also N/East
*Lawan was announced as APC’s consensus candidate by Abdulllahi Adamu
*12 northern APC Govs want party candidate from south in spirit of rotation
By Lanre Oloyede and Matthew Dadiya, Abuja
At the end of the presidential primary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) today and the coronation of the President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan as the party’s consensus candidate, it would be fait accompli for the geo-political south in her quest for the presidency given the fact that the main opposition political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had already elected former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar who also hails from Northern Nigeria as her standard bearer for the 2023 presidential election.
Senator Ahmad Lawan hails from Yobe state in the North – East geo-political zone of the country.
President Muhammadu Buhari had last week informed the 22 governors on the platform of the party that he should be given the opportunity to anoint a consensus candidate as his successor.
The 12 Northern governors on the platform of the party had earlier resolved that in the spirit of rotating the presidency between the North and South that Buhari’s successor comes from the geo-political South.
In spite of the above, the National Chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu announced to the National Working Committee (NWC) that the party had adopted the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan as its consensus candidate.
Adamu said that any aspirant who is not comfortable with the party’s position was free to stand for election at the convention that would be held at the Eagle square in Abuja.
A few weeks ago, the powers of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) were vested in the Adamu-led NWC.
However, subsequent events at the national secretariat of the party yesterday paint a confused scenario as the governors and a section of the NWC insist that the party had no consensus candidate.
President Muhammadu Buhari, Monday cleared all doubts about where he stands on the choice of a presidential candidate for the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), declaring before the party’s 14 governors of northern states that he has “no preferred candidate,” and has “anointed no one,” and is determined to ensure that “there shall be no imposition of any candidate on the party.”
Speaking at a meeting with the Governors at the State House, Abuja, Buhari said the party is important and its members must be respected, and made to feel they are important.
The President said he had a clear mind about what he was doing and asked the APC governors to feel the same way: “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.”
Earlier in their addresses, the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Governor Simon Bako Lalong and Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu of the Progressive Governors Forum, 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.
They apologised to the President for the leakage of their signed memorandum which was not in support of any particular candidate and gave assurances to the President on their readiness to accept his leadership on the matter.
Speaking with State House Correspondents at the end of the meeting, the APC governors explained that “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 about the unity of this country, about the need for progress and the need for inclusiveness, and also the need for accommodation”, he explained.
Asked whether the governor of Kogi State was part of the decision because his name was not in the list, Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-rufai said, they met before coming to meet with Mr. President, we met all of us, including the governor of Kogi State.
El-rufai explained that, “he is 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.”
“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 supermajority. 13 out of 14 is an even bigger supermajority 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”, he said.
In the same vein, some members of the party’s National Working Committee, NWC, have disowned the position of the national Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, on the choice of Senate President Ahmed Lawan as the party’s presidential consensus candidate.
Addressing journalists at the national Secretariat of APC, National Organizing Secretary, Amb. Suleiman Argungu, flanked by three national vice Chairmen from Northwest, South-South, South-west and North-Central and other NWC members, said the party leadership stands by the position of Northern governors on Southern presidency.
Argungu maintained that though Adamu hinted at the NWC meeting Monday morning that Lawan is a consensus candidate, the issue was never discussed, deliberated, or agreed upon at the meeting.
“All of us are just coming from our NWC meeting but we have fully briefed our national chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, and he did brief us that the Senate President, Senator Ahmed Lawan, is our consensus candidate for the APC national convention and that is just for the information he gave us. But it’s not the issue that has been discussed at the floor of the NWC.
“And as you are all aware, about two days ago, the northern governors had their meeting that the leadership of this country should go to the South and equally the Southern governors affirmed that.
“So we as members of the NWC are on the side of the governors that the presidency should go to the South.
“Everybody is entitled to his opinion. First, we are democrats. We must allow everyone to air his opinion. But that is not our position,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) in a statement dissociated itself from the position of the Northern governors, noting that it’s not in the interest of the North.
The statement signed by its spokesman, Suleiman Abdullahi said that the governors by that action had betrayed the trust the region’s youth bestowed on them, noting that it was unacceptable to them.
