How the contenders stand
BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
At last, the ruling All Progressives Congress is faced with a make or mar decision that will determine its future in the nation’s governance as the party holds its widely postponed Special Convention to elect the standard-bearer from Monday, June 6 to Wednesday, June 8, 2022.
The Special Convention was to hold May 29 to 30 but the party capitalized on the adjustment of the timeline by the Independent National Electoral Commission to fix the new date to decide on an aspirant who will not only emerge as the party’s standard-bearer but would go ahead to win the February 12, 2023, presidential election.
The emergence of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar as the People’s Democratic Party’s standard-bearer and former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi as the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party is a big challenge facing APC as the party chooses its own candidate.
Beyond individual aspirants’ financial muscle, the party will certainly consider factors such as national acceptability, religious and ethnic background, personal manifesto merged with the party’s manifesto, campaign delivery and a whole lot of other factors that will certainly speak in favour of or against the aspirants.
News of a consensus candidate emerging from the primary has been the subject of discussion by many party members.
But the party leadership has remained adamant as a chieftain who pleaded anonymity told The Point that the hues and cries about consensus do not change the mandate and prerogative of the party to ensure a nationally acceptable candidate who will win the election in 2023 is given the ticket.
“Why are people crying foul when the party is trying to do what will favour all of us? Which is better; to give somebody a ticket because he is making noise that he is the only man qualified, he goes into the election, loses and we become opposition or to give a candidate who will win and APC remains a ruling party?
“Let me tell you, forget those in the NWC who are working for individuals, not the party. They are the people attacking and accusing the National Chairman of running a one-man show. They were sponsored to the NWC for this purpose by those aspirants who want to get the ticket at all cost but our able National Chairman cannot bulge.
“How can someone claim that only if he is on the ballot is victory guaranteed? And you want the party to buy into such and foreclose on the brighter candidate people on the streets are talking about. Hear me well; we are feeling the pulse of the people who will vote. The election will be decided by these people, not those following the politicians, making noise and attacking whoever does not flow with them on their bandwagon. Most of them do not have PVC.”
Our source also hinted that the party is in the know of what some of these aspirants who have already seen themselves as the only candidate of the party are planning.
“Their plans have been exposed. If over 85 per cent of them, I mean the aspirants agreed to the party’s consensus, the remaining 15 per cent are proving to the party that they are not interested in the party’s success. They are selfish and cannot be seen as party faithful.
“If we can tell ourselves the truth, we must agree that our party needs the best among all the candidates of other parties to retain Aso Rock Villa and that is why we cannot afford to do anything with sentiments. This is not the time to begin to count what you did for the President or the National Chairman or even all the NWC members. This is a time of sacrifice for the success of our party.”
On Friday, the Chairman of the Presidential Aspirants Screening Committee, John Oyegun confirmed the pressure on the party to jettison consensus candidacy. He said over 85 per cent of the aspirants have agreed to consensus but noted that his committee has nothing to do with that as it is the prerogatives of the party.
The former National Chairman of the party stated that most of the aspirants were of high quality and passed the basic tests. He noted that what his committee did was to tell the party those who met the basic requirements.
In his words, “governing a country is not a joke. You look at the background of the aspirants, you look at their ideas, you look at their persuasion of the reality of Nigerian politics, and the more experience they have, the more contributions they have made to the party itself in terms of getting it to be the governing party.”
Digesting the comments of the Screening Committee Chairman, a legal practitioner and political analyst, Abdul Mansur said it is very clear that all is not well with the APC.
According to him, “APC, no doubt, is in search of a quality person who will lead the party to victory in 2023. The party put its eggs in one basket by putting all their hope on President Muhammadu Buhari to the extent that they made every one of their members irrelevant. This is the result.
“Why you are hearing all this noise about consensus candidates is because those behind it believe if the ticket is thrown open, like the PDP, the moneybags will pick it and they don’t have confidence in those at the forefront who can dole out dollars to the delegates. I knew from 2015 that when President Buhari’s tenure is over, APC will be in a very tight corner to produce a man who can lead them to victory and my fears are confirmed.
“They stand the chance of proving to Nigerians that truly they want a united Nigeria. I’m from the North but I must say that they should ignore PDP and choose their candidate from the South. That is what will give us the stability we are looking for. They zoned the ticket to the south before now, shifting grounds will spell doom”
“While Nigerians were complaining about the Buhari administration, these ones jostling to succeed him were worsening the matter. The little name they had, they threw to the mud. They made us believe whatever the President did or said was right and shouldn’t be questioned. When they proved to the rest of us that they are mediocre, how can they expect the President to support them to succeed him? It’s not feasible.
“The truth is that PDP has hit them below the belt with the choice of Atiku Abubakar. It’s not about money, it’s about national acceptability. Anyway, they have the information we don’t have but I must be frank with you, they are struggling to select the best from among the aspirants, however, my personal assessment which tallies with several other people’s is that APC is jittery and this will lead them to commit a serious error that will divide the country beyond where this administration has left it.
“They stand the chance of proving to Nigerians that truly they want a united Nigeria. I’m from the North but I must say that they should ignore PDP and choose their candidate from the South. That is what will give us the stability we are looking for. They zoned the ticket to the South before now, shifting grounds will spell doom,” he said.
A social critic and lawyer, Charles Ekwuruonye believed the APC Special Convention will throw up a lot not only in the party but in the country generally. He said the whole world is watching the calibre of politicians and leaders Nigeria has with their back and forth attitude.
“Remember the APC’s leader and our President, Buhari, told the whole world when they wanted to elect their national chairman that all the posts held by the South should be zoned to the north while those held by the north should be zoned to the south. That was why no southerner contested for the party’s National Chairmanship position.
“This was a few months back. Precisely, they held their National Convention in March where Senator Abdullahi Adamu emerged through consensus but even at that, there was no southerner in the contest. Now, how many months later, the party is finding it difficult to make its word its bond.
“I tell you, Nigerians are tired of mere promises that are worth nothing. I read some people claiming that if the party does not field a northerner in the 2023 presidential election, they will lose and go into the wilderness but I am sure what will send them to the wilderness is dumping the zoning for whatever reason. This primary as I see it is a make or mar. It will break the party or unite it the more, that’s my take,” he said.
Another party chieftain from the south who wouldn’t want his name in print accused those moving for consensus of being enemies of the party adding that whatever consensus they arrive at and ceding the ticket to the north will only brew crises in the party.
“How can anyone talk of APC settling for a northern candidate? The mere mention of that is the crisis itself. I don’t want to believe that because I read it from the media. Anyway, if the party is thinking of consensus, it should eliminate the northern aspirants before the consensus otherwise, if the ticket goes to a northerner, the party will have itself to blame.
“I’m a party faithful. I want the best for us and I vividly believe that the pathway to the best is allowing the southern aspirants only to contest for the presidential ticket, then from among the northern aspirants, choose the running mate. If this is done, we are there at the Aso Rock Villa in 2023 but the opposite of this is bye to the Villa.
“Our presidential primary begins today, Monday. It holds a lot for us as a part and the entire country. Nigerians are waiting for us to show them the direction, if we fail, the entire country has failed.”
