APC Presidential Primaries: Ogbonnaya Onu, Other South-east and South-south Candidates Back Lawan

By Uche Mbah

More confusion regarding the consensus candidacy of the All Progressives Congress arose Tuesday afternoon when aspirants from the Southeast and South-south Geopolitical zones who were not part of the chosen ones rejected the “so-called”, as they termed it, consensus list said to have been submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari for approval.

Buhari was expected to choose one person from the list.

Reports have been rife about the list of five aspirants from the three geopolitical zones of the south-South east, Southwest, and South-south who had made the final shortlist.

The list included Kayode Fayemi, Ekiti state governor; Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State, Yemi Osinbajo, Vice President, Rotimi Amechi, former minister of transport; and David Umahi, governor of Ebonyi state.

Further pruning of the list was said to have dropped Umahi and Fayemi, thereby leaving the South-east out of the equation.

But other aspirants that felt short-changed from South-east and out South-south rejected the consensus list, instead opting to back Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, who was announced as the consensus candidate of the party by the party Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu.

The group, represented by Ogbonnaya Onu, former Minister of Science and Technology, in a press briefing in Abuja Tuesday, described the list as a charade.

“In the past few hours, we have been bombarded with calls and messages from my supporters and concerned Nigerians on a list of five Presidential aspirants submitted to President Buhari to choose from”, he said.

“As long as we are concerned no list has been submitted to Mr. President, the move by the Governors is considered a joke taken to the extreme to play with the intellect of Nigerians particularly us from the South-East.

“Mr. President’s directive is very simple, that all Presidential aspirants including those from the North should meet and harmonize to produce a single candidate.  As it stands we have not been consulted or attended a meeting where it was agreed that such names be sent to Mr. President.

“In the so-called list out of the five names only one was selected from the South-East and we are talking about fairness and justice to the South. What the Governors have done is a mere picnic in the park.  These are the same Governors talking about Equity, justice, and fairness yet in a clandestine manner purportedly sidelined the South East.

“In the absence of any harmonized agreement no list has been submitted to Mr. President, what they have done is just nothing but a charade which is bound to fail.

“We also have it on good authority that the majority of these Governors have been promised and also given various forms of gratifications to thwart the process in favor of one aspirant and such grand plot will fail woefully.

“Moreso, the party led by Senator Abdullahi Adamu remains the official organ of the party through which decisions taken by stakeholders in the party will be communicated and acted upon, in the absence of that any other move remains null and void.

“We urge all well-meaning Nigerians to disregard such information, as we remain in the race hence no consensus agreement has been reached amongst all contestants.

“The names, according to the source, included that of the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Governor Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti State), Rotimi Amaechi, former Minister of Transportation, and Governor Dave Umahi (Ebonyi State).

“The Governors after meeting with the President said they will return to the villa after meeting with the party’s National Working Committee(NWC) and other stakeholders.

“They picked one from South-East, one from South-South, and three from South-West geopolitical zones in line with their position that power should shift to the South,” he said.