How APC Presidential Candidate will emerge on Dec 10 in Lagos
Moves by some strong men in the APC to move the presidential primary out
of Lagos has failed and come 10 December. Consequently, 8,000 delegates
are expected to participate in the convention, scheduled to hold at the
Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, Lagos.
The APC four other presidential aspirants –former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha, and Leadership Newspaper publisher, Sam Nda-Isaiah – had jointly asked for a venue outside Lagos, said to be favoured by Buhari and a former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu.
Atiku and three others wrote the APC National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, on Nov 27, “advising” the party chairman to retain Abuja as the convention venue.
But the APC convention committee, led by ex-Ekiti State governor, Kayode Fayemi, ignored the protest by the presidential aspirants and on Wednesday announced the choice of Lagos as replacement for Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
On the choice of Lagos, Fayemi explained that
The APC four other presidential aspirants –former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha, and Leadership Newspaper publisher, Sam Nda-Isaiah – had jointly asked for a venue outside Lagos, said to be favoured by Buhari and a former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu.
Atiku and three others wrote the APC National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, on Nov 27, “advising” the party chairman to retain Abuja as the convention venue.
But the APC convention committee, led by ex-Ekiti State governor, Kayode Fayemi, ignored the protest by the presidential aspirants and on Wednesday announced the choice of Lagos as replacement for Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
On the choice of Lagos, Fayemi explained that
his committee had been able to convince all the aspirants on the
suitability of the new venue while noting their concerns about
logistics.
But a source, who pleaded anonymity, said, "The aspirants are afraid that Lagos, being the home of a strong supporter of Buhari will give the person he is supporting an edge over others because the issue of accommodation and other logistics will be easier for them (Buhari’s camp) to address."
Another source said the fears being expressed by aspirants about the venue were not unfounded. He said, “There is news making the rounds that a certain leader of the party has booked most of the decent hotels in Lagos.
“The leader in question is working assiduously in favour of a particular aspirant, as such, having delegates within his reach at the last minute could alter earlier projections.”
According to the source, Benin was earlier considered because “the heartbeat of the nation” would serve the dual role of marketing the party as a truly national party as well as selling the party to the electorate in the South-South.
It was, however, gathered that the party leadership picked Lagos because Benin lacked the facilities and security capability to take care of the huge crowd expected at the convention.
On his part, Fayemi said, “For us, it is not who emerges at the end of the day. They are all competent. They all have agenda and they all will implement the manifesto of our party. It is how we get there.
“We have not taken any decision without the input of all the presidential aspirants, l can assure you of that. We did not arrive at Lagos accidentally; we arrived at Lagos with the full input of all our presidential aspirants.
“Those concerns were raised about the distance, for example for somebody coming from Yobe as delegate or Maiduguru, those are practical issues and we would have been surprised if the aspirants didn’t raise such issues.”
He added, “We originally wanted to hold our national convention in Abuja because naturally Abuja is the place to hold an event of this nature. This is where we have always held national party conventions.
“However we had identified a date to hold the party convention in Abuja and due to some exigencies we had to change that date. It also happened that the new date we chose now coincides with the date the PDP also chose for their national convention.
“Understandably the Eagle Square that we wanted to book had been booked for the day.”
But a source, who pleaded anonymity, said, "The aspirants are afraid that Lagos, being the home of a strong supporter of Buhari will give the person he is supporting an edge over others because the issue of accommodation and other logistics will be easier for them (Buhari’s camp) to address."
Another source said the fears being expressed by aspirants about the venue were not unfounded. He said, “There is news making the rounds that a certain leader of the party has booked most of the decent hotels in Lagos.
“The leader in question is working assiduously in favour of a particular aspirant, as such, having delegates within his reach at the last minute could alter earlier projections.”
According to the source, Benin was earlier considered because “the heartbeat of the nation” would serve the dual role of marketing the party as a truly national party as well as selling the party to the electorate in the South-South.
It was, however, gathered that the party leadership picked Lagos because Benin lacked the facilities and security capability to take care of the huge crowd expected at the convention.
On his part, Fayemi said, “For us, it is not who emerges at the end of the day. They are all competent. They all have agenda and they all will implement the manifesto of our party. It is how we get there.
“We have not taken any decision without the input of all the presidential aspirants, l can assure you of that. We did not arrive at Lagos accidentally; we arrived at Lagos with the full input of all our presidential aspirants.
“Those concerns were raised about the distance, for example for somebody coming from Yobe as delegate or Maiduguru, those are practical issues and we would have been surprised if the aspirants didn’t raise such issues.”
He added, “We originally wanted to hold our national convention in Abuja because naturally Abuja is the place to hold an event of this nature. This is where we have always held national party conventions.
“However we had identified a date to hold the party convention in Abuja and due to some exigencies we had to change that date. It also happened that the new date we chose now coincides with the date the PDP also chose for their national convention.
“Understandably the Eagle Square that we wanted to book had been booked for the day.”
On the lleged fears of other presidential aspirants that Lagos could be
used to crown unnamed aspirants, he said the allegation was not true.
“Everything we are doing is in the open and is transparent. In fact, all aspirants have representatives in the committee and they were part of all the discussions that transpired before we arrived at Lagos.
“So if anyone wants to suggest that this is going to be coronation to anyone, that is news to me. We won’t use Lagos to coronate anyone. I have the greatest respect for every aspirant but I am not the type that can be manipulated or intimidated into working to a pre-conceived answer, not even by the chairman of the party or any leader of the party.”
“Everything we are doing is in the open and is transparent. In fact, all aspirants have representatives in the committee and they were part of all the discussions that transpired before we arrived at Lagos.
“So if anyone wants to suggest that this is going to be coronation to anyone, that is news to me. We won’t use Lagos to coronate anyone. I have the greatest respect for every aspirant but I am not the type that can be manipulated or intimidated into working to a pre-conceived answer, not even by the chairman of the party or any leader of the party.”
