Five presidential aspirants of All Progressives Congress are recommended to President Muhammadu Buhari as a consensus candidate, according to Governors and National Working Committee (NWC) of APC.
Those recommended, according to the Plateau State Governor and Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Simon Lalong, are Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, former Lagos Governor Bola Tinubu, Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi, former Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi and Ebonyi State Governor Davi Umahi.
“From our own recommendations, as of this morning, we recommended five people,” Lalong said while speaking on Channels Television on Tuesday morning.
“In alphabetical order, we said Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, John Kayode Fayemi, David Umahi and Professor Yemi Osinbajo. Those are the ones we made recommendations and we said we should put them forward.
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“Consensus is possible. Right from yesterday up till today, we have been doing consultations as Mr President had said, ‘I give you the opportunity, work on it.’
“The governors and the National Working Committee will continue on that consensus. As of yesterday, we were able to even reduce, made recommendations of about five persons, from 23 to recommendations of about 13 aspirants without disqualifying anybody.
“Within those 13 aspirants that were graded by the Screening Committee, we now looked at it and then recommended. That was jointly done by the progressive governors and members of the National Working Committee, reducing it to five,” he said.
The latest development appears a blow to the plot by the APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, to foist Senate President Ahmad Lawan on the party as a consensus candidate.
Lalong’s comments came barely 24 hours after Adamu reportedly announced Lawan as the party’s consensus candidate.
It also came a day after the APC’s NWC and the 19 northern governors insisted on the emergence of a southerner as Nigeria’s next President.
The APC National Organising Secretary, Suleiman Argungu, had made this known on Monday while addressing reporters at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
Briefing the reporters in the company of some members of the NWC, Argungu explained that the committee took the decision following a meeting of its members.
According to him, the NWC stood with the position of the northern governors elected on the APC platform for power to shift to the southern part of the country when President Buhari completes his eight-year two terms billed to lapse in May 2023.
