This evening (Wednesday
evening), no fewer than 8,000 delegates of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
will gather in Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos to pick the party’s flag-bearer
for the February 14 presidential election.
The delegates, both
elected and statutory, drawn from the 36 states and the Federal Capital
Territory, FCT, will choose from the five aspirants who are asking to be
elected as the party’s candidate for a presidential election that bookmakers
believe might be the most competitive since 1999, when Nigeria transited from
military dictatorship to representative democracy. Whoever of the five is
selected at the primaries will slug it out with President Goodluck
Jonathan, who is being ratified later today in Abuja as the candidate of the
ruling Peoples Democratic Party [PDP].
The APC presidential
aspirants are (in alphabetical order) a former Vice President, Atiku
Abubakar; a former Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari; governor of
Kano State, Rabi’u Kwankwaso; his Imo State counterpart, Rochas Okorocha and
the founder of Leadership newspapers, Sam Nda-Isaiah.
The sixth aspirant,
the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, who late in
October left the PDP for the party, has since withdrawn from the
race soon after some of his friends and colleagues in the House bought for
him the Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms worth N27.5 million.
He opted instead to run
for the governorship of his home state of Sokoto, and he won the party’s ticket
Thursday.
In the last three months,
Messrs Atiku, Buhari, Kwankwaso, Okorocha and Nsa-Isaiah have traversed the
country selling their programmes to party faithful ahead of today’s
presidential primary. So far, their campaigns have been decent, apparently in
adherence to the party’s stern directive asking them not to engage in
mudslinging and character assassination.
Discreet attempts by some
party leaders to pick a consensus candidate among the aspirants were
unsuccessful. All five contenders preferred to go into today’s contest,
believing they could secure victory in a credible primary.
According to the Chairman
of the 24-member National Convention Committee, Kayode Fayemi, the party’s
candidate will emerge by secret ballot. He also said the five aspirants signed
an undertaken to abide by the outcome of the primary.
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| Aerial View of Teslim Balogun Stadium |
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