Governors who are members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have submitted the names of five presidential aspirants to President Muhammadu Buhari for him to make a final choice of the party’s consensus candidate.
The Governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have recommended Bola Tinubu, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, ex-Transportation Minister, Rotimi Ameachi, Governors Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti) and Dave Umahi (Ebonyi) as possible consensus candidates.
But sources have confirmed that the President wants the names reduced to two so he can make the final choice.
Plateau State Governor and Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Simon Lalong said on Tuesday during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily that with the five names, the APC is still looking at the possibility of a consensus candidate.
According to Lalong, “from our own recommendations, as of this morning, we recommended five people. In alphabetical order, we said Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, John Kayode Fayemi, David Umahi and Professor Yemi Osinbajo. Those are the ones we made recommendations and we said we should put them forward..
“Consensus is possible. Right from yesterday up till today, we have been doing consultations like Mr President said, ‘I give you the opportunity, work on it.’
“The governors and the National Working Committee will continue on that consensus. As of yesterday, we were able to even reduce, made recommendations of about five persons, from 23 to recommendations of about 13 aspirants without disqualifying anybody.”
“Within that 13 aspirants that were graded by the Screening Committee, we now looked at it and then recommended, that was jointly done by the Progressive governors and members of the National Working Committee, reducing it to five.”
Lalong’s comments come a day after the APC’s NWC as well as the 19 Northern Governors insisted on the emergence of a Southerner as Nigeria’s next President.
APC National Organising Secretary, Suleiman Argungu, in the company of some members of the NWC, told journalists at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja that the Committee took the decision following a meeting of its members.
According to Argungu, the NWC stands with the position of the Northern Governors elected on the APC platform for power to shift to the Southern part of the country when President Muhammadu Buhari completes his eight-year two terms billed to lapse in May 2023.
His remarks was in contrast with the National Chairman of party, Abdullahi Adamu, who gleefully and unilaterally announced the choice of Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, a Northerner, as the consensus candidate of the party.
Adamu had summoned a meeting of the 25-member National Working Committee at the party’s headquarters in Abuja ahead of the presidential primary.
After the announcing the consensus choice and faced backlash from members of the NWC, Adamu hurriedly jumped into his vehicle and zoomed off.