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INTRIGUES and tension reigned in the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, as the party and presidential aspirants put finishing touches to their preparations for today’s Presidential primaries.

The campaign offices of some of the presidential aspirants were beehives as supporters streamed in and out with information that would help the cause of their candidates.

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Amid jostling among the aspirants in what has panned out as a three-horse race among  Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chief Rotimi Amaechi and  Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the various camps were jolted when news filtered in that Senate President Ahmad Lawan had been picked as a consensus candidate.

National Chairman of the party,  Senator Abdullah Adamu told members of the National Working Committee, NWC, mid-day that in consultation with President Muhammadu Buhari the Senate President had been chosen as the consensus candidate for the exercise.

The announcement ignited a chain reaction, first from the NWC members, who kicked against it and insisted that all other aspirants must take part in the primaries.

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Like a wild Harmattan fire, the news travelled fast to the camps of the aspirants, and APC northern governors, who have been in Abuja since last week.

It was also gathered that the northern governors on Monday night had an interface with the NWC with a view to knowing how Senator Adamu arrived at the choice of Lawan.

“The governors are angry because they had already taken a position and have also restated their position after wide consultations. Adamu took a unilateral decision which of course has been rejected by the NWC. So, the governors are meeting the NWC to formally convey their own position to the committee having earlier conveyed same to Mr President”, said a source close to one of the governors.

Buhari disowns Adamu

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As tension up well, President Buhari, Monday afternoon, cleared all doubts about where he stands on the choice of APC presidential candidate. He told the party’s northern governors that he has “no preferred candidate,” and has “anointed no one.”

The President also said that he was determined to ensure that “there shall be no imposition of any candidate on the party.”

This is as the APC governors of northern governors extraction have maintained their initial position that power should go to the south after President Buhari’s eight years in office.

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Speaking at a meeting with the Governors at the State House, Abuja, President Buhari said the party is important and its members must be respected, and made to feel they are important.

The President said he had a clear mind about what he was doing and asked the APC governors to feel the same way.

A statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu quoted the President as saying: “You were elected as I was. Have a clear mind as I have. God gave us the chance; we have no reason to complain.

“We must be ready to take pain as we take the joy. Allow the delegates to decide. The Party must participate, nobody will appoint anybody.”

The 13 APC in support of the power shift to the South stormed Aso Villa for a meeting with President Buhari after which they reiterated their stand on the power shift.

The APC denied endorsing Senate President Ahmad Lawan as its consensus candidate ahead of its special convention and presidential primary election which begins on Tuesday.

The party said it aligns with the position of 13 of its governors from the North who have insisted on a power shift to the South.

On the reason they came to the Presidential Villa, Lalong said, “Our mission today is to reaffirm our position on that statement. We also apologized to him that that statement was made by all of us and we reaffirm the position, but we apologized that the probe the statement leaked out before even our consultations with him.

“However, it is now in the message, not the messenger. So, Mr. President was very happy. He took our position and out of that discussion, Mr. President, as a believer in democratic process, believe that any candidate must emerge through a transparent process and the emphasis that

“Mr. President told us that for this election, for now, he has no anointed candidate and therefore directed that the Progressive Governors Forum meet with the National Working Committee of the party to agree and proffer further solutions and recommendations for his own succession.

“I am sure this will may be the last of consultations. So, we are directed that after this, our chairman of Progressive Governors’ Forum has also summoned a meeting for five o’clock today and after that meeting, we’ll make again further suggestions to Mr. President.

“For emphasis, those of you who read it, I have a copy of what we wrote, which was already out of press, and I said we wrote it and we stand by it; that in the interest of unity, in the interests of peace, we recommended that and also justice, our recommendation is that the next President should come from the south.

“I told you that the President believes in democratic process, but even during democratic process, that are consultations, that are consensus, is also part of democratic process. Even our constitution provides for that; it says consensus and then election, either direct or indirect.

“So, what we’re doing is part of the build up towards the election. What we’re also saying is recommendation as we think that will bring out a very peaceful process.”

Fielding question on the statement made by one of their colleagues, who is a presidential aspirant and governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, that he was not part of the decision that power should shift to the south, the APC governors of northern extraction said their decision is binding to all of them.

Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, who spoke on behalf of others said, “We met before coming to meet with Mr. President, we met, all of us, including the governor of Kogi State.

“As you can see, he’s not the only aspirant, the governor of Jigawa State is also an aspirant and he’s here with us and we met. But the governor of Kogi State chose to excuse himself from meeting with Mr. President because he believes that he does not agree with our position.

“There are 14 APC governors out of the 19 Northern states. 13 of us are on one page on this subject and we all came to see the President, but the governor of Kogi State excused himself and it is within his democratic rights to excuse himself.

“But 12 out of 14 is a super majority. 13 out of 14 is an even bigger super majority and the 13 of us met with the President today. What our leader has communicated to you is a summary of the discussions with Mr. President.”

Reminded that governor Bello said that he was not consulted before their meeting, Governor el-Rufai said, “He was invited to the meeting, he had a clash, he didn’t make it, we proceeded to make…

“Look, I have said this in this hall over and over. I don’t know why people assume that when you have 100 people, everyone must agree before a decision can be taken. That is the key to analysis paralysis.

“When the majority, or even a super majority, like 12 out of 14, takes a decision, everyone is bound. There is no time that everyone will agree to an issue. It’s part of human nature. But what is the majority view of Northern governors? We represent the majority, indeed a supermajority.”

Governor Lalong said, “Also, in any case, please to the question. His name is not on our list, we didn’t write his name. So even without writing his name, it shows that he was not part of it.”

NWC tackles Adamu

At a news briefing after the meeting of the APC NWC, National Organizing Secretary of the party, Alhaji Sulaiman Argungu, who spoke on behalf of the NWC said whatever views Senator Abdullahi Adamu expressed at the meeting were personal.

To show that he was not alone, Argungu was flanked by the National Vice Chairman, South- South, Chief Victor Giadom; National Vice Chairman, Northwest, Salihu Moh. Lukman; National Vice Chairman, South West, Chief Isaacs Kekemeke and several other members of the NWC.

APC was on Monday thrown into confusion following reports that Senator Adamu had during the NWC meeting announced Senate President Ahmad Lawan as its consensus presidential candidate.

The said announcement which was in sharp contrast with the decision of 13 APC Northern Governors and some of its political leaders who have consistently opted for power-shift to the South.

For several hours, both Spokesman of the party, Felix Morka who is a member of the NWC, and Muhammad Nata’ala Keffi, media aide to the national chairman were not available for comments on the issue.

However, a member of the NWC who pleaded anonymity confirmed that indeed Adamu mentioned the issue in passing but it was never ratified as the position of the NWC.

“The chairman said so but we believe he was just expressing his personal opinion as the matter was not tabled for discussion and no decision was taken on it by the NWC”, said the member.

(Vanguard)