The Presidential Ambition of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has introduced cracks within the top hierarchy of the Nation’s ruling party.
Governors and Leaders in the party are divided over Tinubu’s decision to contest for the nation’s top seat. This division is largely affecting the zoning arrangements of the National Working Committee(NWC) and the National Executive Committee, NEC offices ahead of the February 26 National convention of the party.
POLITICS NIGERIA can reliably report that as at the time of filing this report, the APC is yet to inform the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, of its planned national convention even as activities leading up to its convention begin this week.
The Electoral Act states that any political party planning to hold its national convention must inform INEC at least 21 days prior to its national convention. The APC fixed its national convention for February 26, meaning the deadline for it to inform INEC lapses on Saturday, February 5, 2021. .
The Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi also disclosed that APC had not yet informed the commission of its convention activities.
APC Governors in Control
Although the APC governors have taken charge of the party, they are yet to agree on Tinubu and a chairmanship candidate. According to a reliable source, President Buhari is not averse to a South-easterner succeeding him and may be eyeing a minister from the zone as his successor.
Recently President Buhari said his choice of ‘favoured successor’ would shock people, a reason he said he would keep the identity of the person secret.
The Source disclosed that the party must find a way to assuage the feelings of Tinubu and some founders of the party, who are gunning for the presidential ticket because “promises were made to them during the formation of the party.
“If the party cannot fulfil the promises in 2023, the party has to meet and plead with them.
“If the party treats them with contempt, they are ready to stand their ground and it will affect the party in 2023 elections.”
Another top leader of the APC revealed that the party was still considering options that could make it retain the presidency in 2023.
The party leader stated; “Although from all indications, the next chairman will come from the North, that will not stop interested northerners from vying for the APC presidential ticket. We have competent aspirants in the North and the South. We have not made up our minds, but we will go for the best, who will help us retain the presidency in 2023.”
“If the chairman and the President come from the North, the worst the party can do is to give the chairman a political appointment and allow his deputy, who will be a southerner to step in. Also, we can retain the present arrangement by retaining a northern chairman and picking our presidential candidate from the south.”
It was, however, learnt that chieftains of the APC, who were pushing for a president from the South were insisting that the party could not turn around to zone Presidency to the North after the same region had produced the chairman of the party.
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