SENATE President Ahmed Lawan on Monday picked expression of interest and nomination forms to contest the All Progressive Congress (APC) presidential primary election.
The forms were purchased for the Senate President at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, by a group of his friends led by Sam Nkire, a member of the National Caucus of the party and 15 other Senators.
Speaking to journalists, Nkire said the Senate President authorised the group to pick up the forms for him.
READ ALSO:
2023: Jonathan rejects APC presidential forms
Amid fuel scarcity, group picks APC presidential forms for Timipre Sylva
2023: Northern coalition picks APC presidential forms for Jonathan
2023: Group picks N100 million APC presidential forms for AfDB President Adesina
He added that Lawan has the qualities to lead the country.
“Nigeria needs a Nigerian President and not one given to ethnic proclivities. We are not here on our own, we have his (Lawan) backing. Even though friends and brothers contributed to purchase this form for him but he has given us the go ahead,” he said.
Nkire added, “We want the current Senate President to be the President of Nigeria for many reasons. National stability is one, and the President that we are bringing for the Nigerian people is a Nigerian President, not an Igbo President, not a Fulani President, not a Yoruba President but a Nigerian President who we have watched and seen that there would be no other candidate that will be so level-headed and someone who has the feeling of the poor Nigerians.”
Nkire accused the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of driving the APC into abandoning zoning of its presidential ticket.
He noted that if the PDP cedes its presidential ticket to the North, it would amount to political suicide for the APC to take a different approach
He said, “Let me tell you, every politician is in politics to win. It is PDP that is driving us to do this. We have said so, but we don’t want PDP to take the government from us. If we give the position to a Southerner and PDP gives to a Northerner, APC will go into the wilderness and we are not ready to go into the wilderness.”
The Senate President joins more than 20 presidential aspirants who have so far picked the expression of interest and nomination forms of the APC.
'Niyi worked with The ICIR as an Investigative Reporter and Fact-checker from 2020 till September 2022. You can shoot him an email via niyioyedeji1@gmail.com. You can as well follow him on Twitter via @niyi_oyedeji.