John Odigie-Oyegun, chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential screening committee has adduced reasons while 13 aspirants were cleared to aspire for the party’s ticket for the 2023 presidency.
BusinessDay earlier reported that the committee has disqualified 10 out of the 23 aspirants for APC presidential ticket.
Oyegun said all the 23 aspirants met the basic constitutional qualifications to aspire to be a president of Nigeria but those cleared were considered based on their ability to lead, background, experience and understanding of the Nigerian situation.
The former APC national chairman spoke during the submission of the screening committee’s report to Abdullahi Adamu, the party’s national chairman in Abuja on Friday.
He said the other criteria for clearance of the 13 aspirants include their ideas as to how issues, difficulties and the rest can be addressed and how the country can move forward to begin a critical consideration.
“It is on that basis we made our final shortlist. I don’t want to read the names which I think would leave that to you (chairman) but we have a shortlist which brought the number down to 13.
“We could have cut it a little shorter but we wanted deliberately, the younger elements to surface for them to be seen, for them to be noticed. We would hand them over to the party and it is for the party to decide whom their candidate will be.
“It is also an opportunity to showcase the kind of people that exist in the party, within the party. Their youthfulness, their kind of experience and let the world know that this is a party that cares for the young, and this is the party that when we say the young can aspire, we really mean it and this have been showcased in the report that we have written,” Oyegun said.
The former Edo state governor disclosed that one aspirant said he/she can only accept consensus if it is for him/her while the remaining accepted the option if it is chosen, hence ‘the party is supreme’.
He advised the party not to be afraid if any aspirant insisted that the presidential primary be contested and called for carefulness in handling issues concerning north and south disparity, regarding the 2023 presidency.
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Oyegun said: “We engage every aspirant on the issue of consensus and it was a pleasant surprise that 99 percent agreed that the party is supreme and what ever the party finally decide with proper consultation they were likely to accept.
“There is only one person that said ‘I will accept consensus as long as it is based on me’. So, I think it is a point I need to emphasise on it. That gives you a way in the hours ahead to trim down even more drastically. But finally we think we should not be afraid of the contested primary if anybody insist on the contest.
“I will just conclude by saying that we only drew a word of caution that is gradually becoming center stage in national discussion between the north and the south and the presidency. And we just want to advise strongly that the party should please think of it in making these decisions and address it and make it influence their thoughts because it has it own implications.”
Responding, Adamu, the APC national chairman said the report will be considered at the highest level of the party to see how it would be approached before the forthcoming convention which has the ultimate authority on the choice of who takes the flag of the party.
He said: “The flag does not belong to me, it doesn’t belong to anyone of us it is the flag of the party and corporate body called the APC.
“Whoever emerges to bear the flag for the party is only the symbol of the party. It is my hope that the spirit in which we approach the convention will guide everyone.
“The chairman (Oyegun) in his presentation spoke on the issue of north and south divide. It is our hope that due consideration will be given on the basis of the facts available to those who will be behind the decision.”
Names of 10 disqualified APC presidential aspirants were yet to be known at the time of this report.
