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Six top southern aspirants will today engage in a fierce battle for the presidential ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Though the party’s northern governors on Saturday backed power shift to the South with Jigawa State Governor, Abubakar Badaru dropping his aspiration, Senate President, Ahmed Lawan and Kogi State Governor, Yaya Bello, are expected to pose a challenge to the southern aspirants.

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It was, however, learnt that despite the northern governors support for a Southern candidate, the quest for a consensus by southern aspirants is facing a major push-back from stakeholders in the region.

Multiple sources told Daily Sun that six aspirants in the lead, in no particular order, include Vice President Yemi Osibanjo; former Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu; Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi; former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu; former ministers of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi and State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba.

It was also learnt that the top contenders are still unsure as to who would likely get the blessing of President Muhammadu Buhari ahead of today’s exercise.

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It was gathered that immediately the northern governors gave a green light on power shift to the South, the battle for a consensus candidate began in the regions.

It was learnt that few hours after the meeting with President Buhari and the accompanying statement by northern APC governors, the South West leaders swung into action and immediately met in Abuja.

However, sources privy to the series of meetings told Daily Sun that it has been difficult for the South West to succeed in narrowing the race to Bola Tinubu or Vice President Osinbajo.

The source said the South West leaders were increasingly getting frustrated following their inability to convince the leading contenders to shift grounds.

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He named Tinubu, Osinbajo and Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, as three leading contenders in the South West who are unwilling to sacrifice their personal ambitions for the interest of the region.

The South East also faces the same dilemma of getting its aspirants to agree on a consensus.Our source said an earlier scheduled meeting among aspirants from the region was called off at the last minute recently.

The situation with South-South aspirants is not different.Our source said though Amaechi appears to be the leading contender from the zone, Godswill Akpabio, former Akwa Ibom State governor, is unwilling to shift grounds.

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It was, however, learnt that the president might have known that it would be Herculean for the aspirants to agree on a consensus, and merely played a game that would give him the excuse to announce his preferred candidate.

“What Buhari has done is to make it impossible for aspirants to be left with no choice. There is no way aspirants will agree and step down. President Buhari knows this fact. How can you ask a South East person for instance to step down for a South West aspirant? Or tell Amaechi to step down for Ogbonnaya Onu? At the end of the day, Buhari will pick his own anointed person. It is impossible to expect aspirants to come up with a consensus within 24 hours. That’s a tall order. Before the convention, things will become clearer. But I can assure you that Buhari will pick his own candidate. Whether or not the candidate will be formidable enough to stand Atiku is a different story,” said the source.

The new regional horse-trading is a fall out of Saturday’s meeting between aspirants and President Buhari. Contrary to expectations that Buhari was going to announce his anointed scribe, he shocked aspirants when he deferred it.

He instead urged aspirants to meet and agree on a consensus candidate who will fly the party’s flag in 2023.

The meeting between President Buhari and aspirants was still ongoing, when Northern APC governors, released a communique, announcing that power will be ceded to the South.

•Umahi, Fayemi meet

Meanwhile, Governor Umahi, however received Governor Fayemi in his Abuja residence, yesterday.

The meeting was in obedience to the directive of President Buhari for all aspirants to proceed with consultations and come up with an acceptable candidate that would fly the flag of the party for the 2023 presidential election.

Umahi is the only sitting governor from the South East vying to become the candidate of the party.

Both governors agreed on aligning with the decision of the president and the party – that whosoever is finally presented as the presidential candidate would receive his full support.

However, Governor Umahi noted that in the interest of peace, equity, fairness, and national cohesion, it would be most acceptable that President Buhari and the party considered narrowing the search by choosing any of the aspirants from South East with an assurance that all other aspirants from the zone would support the chosen one.

(Sun)