After the much-awaited national convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the stage is now set for the party’s search for a sellable presidential standard bearer, who will square up to President Goodluck Jonathan, whose re-election bid is expected to be announced any moment.
Checks by Daily Sun revealed that with the purported zoning of the APC presidential slot to the North-West geopolitical zone, both General Mohammadu Buhari, former head of state and Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, were getting set to fight for the party’s presidential ticket.
It was gathered that in preparation for his presidential bid, Kwankawso had made some deft political moves to position himself for the exalted position.
A chieftain of the APC, who pleaded anonymity, told Daily Sun that since the party appeared to prefer a younger candidate, the Kwankwaso camp was doing everything to prepare for the contest.
According to him, “the party is toying with the idea of backing a younger aspirant, with a view to ensuring generational shift in the power equation.”
He disclosed that in preparation for the presidential bid, Kwankwaso recently conducted local government elections to prove his popularity and wide acceptability of APC in Kano State.
“Kwankwaso has succeeded in making a statement with the council election that the former state governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekerau, has no electoral value in the state since he lost even his ward during the council poll,” the source stated.
Checks revealed that the Kwankwaso camp had been reaching out to stakeholders in the APC and subtly dropping hints of the governor’s interest in the number one political office in the country.
Sources stated that the Kano State governor was getting support from fellow governors in the party, who wanted to determine who became the presidential candidate of the party.
Daily Sun gathered that the APC governors had expressed their preference for one of them to get the presidential ticket of the party to square up to Jonathan next year.
The governors had their way in the choice of who became the national chairman of the party, as their candidate, Chief John Oyegun, emerged, against the choice of Chief Tom Ikime, backed by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
When contacted on phone for his comments, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said it was too early to decide who would be the presidential candidate of the APC, saying: “The job before the party now is to consolidate its roadmap and strengthen its structure for the electoral task ahead.”
According to him, the party’s convention had succeeded in erasing the wrong notion that APC was a Muslim party or that there was no internal democracy in the party.
“My brother, one hour can be too long in politics, let alone one day, one week, one month, six months. Anything can happen between now and November,” Mohammed said.
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Source: Sun
