Governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress may queue behind Gen. Muhammadu Buhari(retd.) as the preferred presidential candidate of the party for the 2015 election.
This might not be unconnected to the heavy media buzz that the speaker has generated eversince he defected to the APC and also picked the party’s presidential nomination form.
Below is how PUNCH reported the story:
The governors are suspecting that those asking the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, to pick the presidential form are enemies of the party.
Two of the governors, who spoke with our correspondent on Friday and Saturday respectively, said they would work for Buhari.
One of them, who called our correspondent on Friday evening, said there was no way he and his colleagues would support Tambuwal.
He said he and his colleagues were not worried with Tambuwal’s picking of the party’s presidential form.
He said, “We are not worried with his picking presidential form. He’s not going far.
“We expected him to focus on him becoming the governor of Sokoto State. He’s a good product anyway, but he’s not ripe for Presidency now. He can’t defeat President Goodluck Jonathan.”
Another governor, who’s from the North, said Tambuwal’s entrance could be a ploy by pro-Jonathan sympathisers within the party who he said, could be looking for a weak candidate that the president could easily over-run.
He said he and some leaders within the party were informed the national leadership of the party and the Presidency were scared of a Buhari challenge.
He said this could be the main reason the pro-Jonathan people within the party could have sold a dummy to Tambuwal, deceiving him that he’s young and would be liked by all.
He said, “We know what’s going on. We are not being deceived. Those saying Tambuwal is young and vibrant are saying the truth, but his time hasn’t come. He doesn’t have the capacity to command the followership in the north and the entire country.
“This is not the time to allow anyone to sell any dummy to the party. It is a national party and not a regional party anymore.
“If there is anyone who think he can betray us at this stage, the person must think twice. We like Tambuwal, but he can’t be our candidate for now.”
Meanwhile, the presidential aspiration of Tambuwal has worsened the problems being faced by the All Progressives Congress in choosing its presidential candidate.
Sunday PUNCH learnt in Abuja, on Friday, that the Speaker’s entry had altered earlier projections of a possible deal on a consensus candidate.
It was gathered that the leadership of the APC had reasoned that choosing a consensus candidate would save the party from rancour arising from a presidential primaries.
Some nursed fears that the primary might not produce the desired results for the party.
A member of the party’s National Working Committee, who spoke in confidence with SUNDAY PUNCH, said, “We know that primaries may not produce a candidate that will be acceptable nationwide. That is why we would have preferred a consensus, but from the look of things, the presidential primary is unavoidable.”
The party’s National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, had recently stated that the leadership of the party would gladly welcome the emergence of a consensus candidate for the party in the 2015 election.
“I will give you one clear assurance; if there is a consensus among the aspirants, we as a party will welcome it completely. But if there is no consensus, we are going to give you the cleanest, most transparent primary,” he said.
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