Crisis rocks APC over Buhari’s 2023 consensus candidate

Some presidential aspirants and stakeholders in the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, are poised for a fight and have started mobilizing to abort the emergence of a consensus presidential candidate.

They are also fighting to ensure that the party’s standard-bearer does not emerge via imposition.

It was gathered that the next stage of the battle would be fought at the National Working Committee, NWC, where decisions would be taken on the report of the Presidential Screening Committee chaired by one-time Edo State governor and former APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.

The seven-man panel concluded its two-day work on Wednesday. It was not clear last night if it had turned in its report.

However, sources said a decision on the panel’s report will be informed by how well the governors get the aspirants to step down.

READ ALSO: Apc national vice chairman tackles Buhari, reveals poor judgement in plea to choose successor

“They are to prevail on aspirants from their regions to step down if they are not chosen as the consensus candidate. We must achieve a consensus by the weekend. They are to discuss with the aspirants.

Meanwhile, it was gathered that some aspirants are not comfortable with Senator Adamu’s style, especially as he declared upon taking over the reins of the APC in March that he would work with the plans of President Muhammadu Buhari to install the next president.

A source close to one of the presidential aspirants from the South said the idea of asking any aspirant to step down will not work, warning that any attempt to settle for a northern candidate will affect the fortunes of the party.

“We are hearing that he may settle for a Northerner. If he does that, the party will go up in flames. We hope he does the needful.”

In an open letter, APC National Vice Chairman, North-West, Salihu Moh. Lukman urged President Buhari to be conscious of his legacies and avoid falling into the temptation of unilaterally picking his successor.

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Noting that it would be “democratically risky and very costly” to allow the president does so, Lukman urged President Buhari not to copy what he described as the anti-democratic credentials of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who foisted his successor, late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on his Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and went on to rig the general election to ensure his emergence as president.

In like manner, the APC National Stakeholders wondered if the president was now being influenced by the antics of state governors who often resort to imposing their stooges as successors, saying the president is supposed to be a moral compass to governors.

Speaking under the aegis of APC Rebirth Group, the stakeholders said President Buhari’s desire to reciprocate gestures must not compromise the party’s internal democratic processes.

“The best legacy President Buhari can leave for the APC and Nigeria as a whole is the legacy of a deeply entrenched democratic process where Nigerians can freely choose who represents them at whatever level in free, fair, credible and transparent processes.”

Meanwhile, the former Senate Minority leader and the Director-General of Rotimi Amaechi Presidential Campaign Organisation, Senator Ali Ndume, APC, Borno South has thrown his weight behind President Buhari on the comment, saying it is democratic.

Ndume who said that former President of the United States of America, USA, Barack Obama picked interest in his Vice, Joe Biden to succeed him and he worked very hard to support Biden, said that there was nothing wrong with the position of President Buhari on the issue.

Meanwhile, a presidential source told some selected journalists in Abuja, yesterday, that President Buhari may have settled for his vice as his preferred presidential candidate of the APC before departing for Spain.

The presidential aide, who spoke in confidence, noted that a political team, comprising prominent Yoruba leaders, has been set up to dialogue with former governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on the need to accept Professor Osinbajo as a consensus candidate.