THE chairman of the Nigerian Southern Governors’ Forum and governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has condemned the decision of the All Progressives Congress (APC) chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, to name the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, as the party’s preferred candidate for the 2023 presidential election.
Akeredolu said that Adamu, with his statement, had embarked on “a frolic” that was “dangerous”.
He said the APC governors in the Northern and Southern regions had agreed that the presidential candidacy of the party should shift to the South for the 2023 elections.
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He also said the APC governors and other stalwarts had agreed that the party go to the polls to elect its flagbearer for the presidential ticket if aspirants failed to reach a consensus.
Akeredolu said anyone who took a decision contrary to that agreement was doing so at his personal level.
“My attention has just been drawn to the expensive joke purportedly enacted by the National Chairman of APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu. The speculation is rife that the chairman took a flight of fancy and decided to make a pronouncement beyond his competence. He has allegedly made public his preferred choice as the candidate of the APC for the office of the president in the next general elections.
“This alleged pronouncement runs contrary to the position of the majority of Northern Governors in APC and their counterparts in the South. Our agreement is unanimous on this issue. The office of the president should be contested for by qualified persons from the southern part of the country if the move to get a consensus candidate fails. There has been no shift from this settled issue.
“Let it be known that the chairman or anyone who holds a contrary opinion does so at a personal level. He is, at best, embarking on a frolic that reasonable people will consider dangerous,” the governor said in a statement he personally signed on Monday night.
Akeredolu, who is still mourning the death of dozens of worshippers killed by gunmen on Sunday in a Catholic church in Owo, where he hails from, insisted that power must shift to the South.
Adamu had reportedly named Lawan as President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC’s choice for the presidential poll slated for February 25, 2023, making the party’s presidential primary scheduled for the Eagles’ Square Abuja on Tuesday a mere formality.
The president, however, debunked the announcement and its accompanying reports shortly after.
The party’s national leader, Bola Tinubu; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayode; and Senator Ibikunle Amosun are the leading aspirants for the APC presidential ticket in the South-West.
Former ministers Rotimi Ameachi and Godswill Akpabio will lead the aspirants from the South-South, while Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi; and former ministers, Emeka Uwajiuba and Ogbonnaya Onu are the front runners for the office in the South-East.
The APC governors in the North had resolved on Saturday night to cede the presidency to the South, forcing Kebbi State Governor Abubakar Bagudu to step down his ambition to pick the party’s ticket.
But the Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, in the country’s North-Central and Senate President Ahmed Lawan, who hails from Yobe State in the North-East, were yet to step down at the time of filing this report.
The APC candidate will be facing candidates of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) in the presidential election next year.
Other political parties will also field candidates in the presidential poll.
The election winner will succeed Buhari, whose two-term tenure of four years each ends on May 29, 2023.
Marcus bears the light, and he beams it everywhere. He's a good governance and decent society advocate. He's The ICIR Reporter of the Year 2022 and has been the organisation's News Editor since September 2022. Contact him via email @ [email protected].