There is palpable anxiety among chieftains and members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a total of 2,340 delegates convene today in Abuja, the nation’s capital to elect the party’s Presidential flagbearer for the 2023 general elections.
Twenty Eight persons purchased the nomination and expression of interest forms at N100 million each and twenty-three of them were screened last week. Ten were later disqualified by the John Oyegun-led screening committee, leaving 13 aspirants to contest for the ticket of the APC today.
Three aspirants, namely: the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele and the Minister of Petroleum for State, Timipreye Sylva, did not submit their forms while the former President, Goodluck Jonathan and Akinwumi Adesina did not show up for screening.
However, the National Chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Adamu, debunked the Screening Committee’s report, saying that no aspirant was disqualified.
He said that all the aspirants would contest for presidential ticket.
The aspirants are Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, Bola Ahmed Tinubu,Yemi Osinbajo, Ahmed Lawan, Godswill Akpabio, Emeka Nwajiuba, Ken Nnamani, Yahaya Bello and Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
Others are; Rochas Okorocha, Ogbonnaya Onu, Ibikunle Amosu, Tunde Bakare, Ben Ayade, Dave Umahi, Kayode Fayemi, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar and Ahmed Yerima.
Meanwhile, the Northern APC Governors had at the weekend asked aspirants from the region to step down and allow their Southern counterparts contest for the primary.
The Governors agreed that it was the turn of the South to produce the next President.
They called on President Muhammadu Buhari to select his successor from the Southern part of the country.
Similarly, President Muhammadu Buhari, on his return from the Kingdom of Spain at the weekend, met with all the presidential aspirants of the party and APC Caucus, urging them to settle for a consensus candidate.
However, it seems that the ruling party’s aspirants and caucus are finding it difficult to reach a consensus.
According to the Electoral Act, all the candidates must agree to step down for one of them for a consensus to be reached and if this is not the case, they have to battle it out in the primaries.
According to the programme of event released by special convention committee of the party, the election will start from 4pm and end at 9pm while counting and collation of votes will be from 9pm to 10pm.
