– O. Adejo
As the All progressive congress (APC) delegates gather to vote for their selected presidential aspirants, seven of the aspirants have rejected the selection of five presidential aspirants submitted by the party governors to President Muhammadu Buhari as a consensus candidate.
The aspirants, led by the former Minister of Science and Technology Ogbonnaya Onu, asserted that they were not consulted before the Governors’ decision.
The unhappy aspirants characterized the action as not only selfish but also as an attempt to marginalize other contenders, especially those from the South-East and South-South geopolitical zones of the country.
Governor of Cross River State Ben Ayade, former Minister of State for Education Emeka Nwajiuba, former Minister for Science and Technology Ogbonnaya Onu, former Governor Rochas Okorocha, and billionaire Tein Jack-Rich are the candidates.
In a letter written to the President and obtained by VIP magazine, Onu urged their supporters to disregard the resolution and emphasized that neither the Northern Governors nor the Governors Forum had the moral or constitutional authority to determine the political fate of the South.
The aspirants questioned the alleged selection of only one candidate from the Southeast, a region that had never produced the president of Nigeria, three candidates from the Southwest, a region that has held the presidency for 16 years, and one candidate from the South-South, a region that has also produced a president for six years.
They stated that five of the northern governors had been guaranteed the position of vice president, prompting some of the governors to demand that the APC presidential ticket be zoned to the South.
Okorocha, Onu, Ayade, and others reject APC Governors’ consensus candidate list