APC Presidential Primary: I’ve anointed no one, no imposition of candidate, says Buhari

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OBIORA IFOH, Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari, Monday afternoon cleared all doubts about where he stands on the choice of a presidential candidate for the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, declaring before the party’s 14 governors of northern states that he has “no preferred candidate,” and has “anointed no one,” and is determined to ensure that “there shall be no imposition of any candidate on the party.”

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.

He said: “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.”

Earlier in their addresses, the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Simon Bako Lalong of Plateau state and Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu of the Progressive Governors Forum, said they had come to affirm the position of the Northern Governors that the party’s candidate in the presidential election shall come from the southern part of the country.

They apologised to the President for the leakage of their signed memorandum which was not in support of any particular candidate and gave assurances to the President on their readiness to accept his leadership on the matter.

Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors from the North have rejected the choice of Senate President, Ahmed Lawan as the consensus presidential candidate of the party.

The National Chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, was said to have announced Lawan as the consensus candidate, a decision members of the National Working Committee reportedly disagreed with.

In a meeting on Monday with President Muhammadu Buhari, the Northern governors insisted that power should rotate to Southern part of the country in 2023.

The Chairman of the Northern States Governors’ Forum, Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, briefed State House reporters after the meeting with the president at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

He said the 13 of them apologised to the president for receiving the information about their position after it was leaked.

The governor, however, said that they took the decision in the interest of justice and peace in the country.

Lalong, who stated that they would hold another meeting by 5pm today (Monday) among themselves, said the president agreed with their position and maintained that the presidential candidate must emerge through a transparent process.

He said President Buhari told them he did not have an anointed candidate for now and directed them to meet the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) to agree on the succession plan.

On the absence of the Governor of Kogi State at the meeting where the power shift decision was taken, he said his colleague was not part of the agreement as his signature was not on the statement.

In his contribution, Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State said it was the democratic right of Kogi governor to excuse himself.

In a swift reaction to recent statement credited to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President Muhammadu Buhari has said that several persons played different roles in his emergence as the President in 2015 even as he insists that no one man can claim the glory alone.

Presidency while reacting to a statement credited to the All Progressives Congress, APC national leader and presidential aspirant, Tinubu who days ago said that because he installed Buhari president in 2015, he should be reciprocate with the presidency come 2023 election however set the criteria which his successor must possess.

In a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, he said, “It is perhaps not surprising that on the eve of the All Progressives Congress (APC) flagbearer primary there are those running as candidates who wish to associate themselves with the President’s rise to elected office seven years ago.

“There are many people who played parts large and small in his historic election in 2015, making history as the first opposition candidate to defeat a sitting president with power changing hands peacefully at the ballot box.

“There are those who advised the President to run again; those who decided to build a political party – the APC – that could finally be the political vehicle capable of delivering victory where all other opposition parties and alliances before it had failed.

“Those decisions may have been agreed upon by a few. But they were delivered by thousands and voted for by tens of millions. No one can or should claim to have made the possible.

“Yet as important as that moment was, it is not what should decide the next general election.

“What matters is the future: the policy platforms, the ideas, the drive, and the determination to take over the President’s stewardship of our country and build upon his legacy to make our country better than it has ever been.

“The person most demonstrable in those qualities is the one to lead our party and our country forward.”