Abdullahi Adamu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Monday came into the eyes of the storm over his choice of Ahmad Lawan, President of the Senate as the consensus presidential candidate of the ruling party.
Adamu, contrary to the resolution of the northern APC governors and leaders that power should shift to the south had announced before members of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) that Lawan from the north-esatern state of Yobe is consensus flag bearer of the party.
Since, the pronouncement, President Muhamadu Buhari and the NWC has disowned the APC chairman while there has been wide condemnation of his action.
Rotimi Akeredolu, Ondo State Governor, faulted the announcement which he described as a huge joke.
Akeredolu said this in a statement which read in parts: “My attention has just been drawn to the expensive joke purportedly enacted by the National Chairman of APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu.
“The speculation is rife that the Chairman took a flight of fancy and decided to make a pronouncement beyond his competence.
“He has, allegedly, made public his preferred choice as the candidate of the APC for the Office of the President in the next general elections.
“This alleged pronouncement runs contrary to the position of majority of Northern Governors in APC and their counterparts in the South. Our agreement is unanimous on this issue.
“The Office of the President should be contested for by qualified persons from the Southern part of the country if the move to get a consensus candidate fails. There has been no shift from this settled issue.”
Read also: Adamu absent as APC governors, NWC hold crucial meeting
Similarly, a group known as the Northern Progressive Agenda condemned in the strongest term, what it called ‘the coup’ attempt by Adamu to foist an unpopular and unacceptable candidate on the members of the party.
Aliyu Audu Director General of Northern Progressive Agenda said this in a statement titled: “Northern Progressive Agenda Condemns Abdullahi Adamu’s ‘Democratic Coup’ Attempt, Hails Northern Governors.”
“Members of the APC and Nigerians by extension were greeted to a rude shock on Monday, when Senator Adamu announced that Senate President Ahmad Lawan has been picked as the consensus candidate of the party for the 2023 presidential election.
“The coup attempt however failed after governors of the northern region met with President Muhammadu Buhari to restate their earlier position that the presidency under the APC must move to the south. The president equally informed the governors 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.”
“The position of the president and that of the governors is a clear indication that Senator Adamu acted alone or in cahoot with certain interests within the corridors of power, in clear violation of every democratic principles and ideals.
“While consensus is a provision in our laws, a unilateral decision to impose Senate President Ahmad Lawan on more than 40 million members of the party without recourse to at least other aspirants and stakeholders of the party is not the consensus envisaged by our laws. It is at best a Democratic coup that we are glad has fallen flat on its face.
“But we are not in any way surprised by the antics and actions of Senator Abdullahi Adamu as we have always known that he does not possess the democratic credentials that should be exemplary of a National Chairman in a party like the APC. If his role as one of the chief promoters of the failed third term agenda of former President Olusegun Obasanjo was not a pointer to this, his failed attempt to impose Senate President Ahmad Lawan on the party is a confirmation. His handling of the office since his emergence as National Chairman is a further confirmation from what we have heard from fellow members of the National Working Committee,” the statement read in parts.
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