The choice of consensus candidates ahead of the national convention of the All Progressives Congress has been met with defiance by some aspirants and political gladiators, POLITICS NIGERIA exclusively reports.
This medium had earlier reported President Muhammadu Buhari’s last-minute directive, where he ordered APC Governors to come up with a “unity list” of the candidates for all positions ahead of the convention.
The President maintained that all persons seeking office into the National Working Committee should emerge through consensus.
“Your Excellencies. With the convention only two days away I implore you to come together and sort out all the remaining party positions so that within the next 24 hours we can arrive at a unity list which we can take to the convention,” Buhari said this during a meeting with APC governors in Abuja on Wednesday.
POLITICS NIGERIA learnt that of the seven chairmanship aspirants who have submitted their forms at the party secretariat, former Nasarawa Governor, Abdullahi Adamu, was the President’s choice.
According to multiple sources, privy to the outcome of the meeting to draft the unity list on Thursday, some Governors and aspirants kicked against the emergence of Adamu.
Our source, who refused that his name be printed for security reasons, said one of the Governors, Ekiti state’s Kayode Fayemi, opposed Adamu’s candidacy.
“Fayemi said Adamu, who is 75 years old, cannot steer the affairs of the party well. He said the younger generation of the party are not in support of Adamu. The former Governor then mulled support for Senator Sani Musa from Niger state,” our source said.
It was also gathered that while other aspirants are already making moves to step down, another former Governor of Nasarawa, Tanko Al-makura, has remained opposed to the emergence of Adamu as a consensus candidate.
“Al-Makura is the only one left doing strong head. He said he won’t allow an Adamu Chairmanship. The meeting yesterday did not end well,” said an aide to one of the Chairmanship aspirants.
When POLITICS NIGERIA contacted John Akpanudoedehe, the National Secretary, APC Caretaker and Extra-ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), for reaction, he did not pick telephone calls or texts put across.
Likewise, the aides of Messrs Fayemi and Al-Makura did not return POLITICS NIGERIA’s calls on Friday.
Nevertheless, the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, has assured that the unity list will be ready before Saturday’s showdown. Addressing journalists on Thursday, Mr Lawan said that with several meetings going on, the party would have achieved consensus in selecting and electing the officers for the party.
“The essence of these engagements is for the party to achieve consensus, and consensus is a process. It doesn’t just happen like that.
“So I believe that before we go into the convention square on Saturday, we would have a lot of consensus reached and maybe the sort of document that we call or refer to as “unity list’ that is bringing all the agreed positions where consensus has been achieved in the various sections or geopolitical zones of the country.”
