APC chairman says party may still zone presidency after it completes its screening exercise

NIGERIA'S ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) may eventually zone its 2023 presidential ticket according to party chairman Senator Abdullahi Adamu who revealed that a final decision on the matter will be taken after all the candidates are screened.

There are currently 28 candidates vying for the APC presidential ticket and the party is in the process of screening them. According to Senator Adamu, all the presidential aspirants would be scrutinised in accordance with the party’s guidelines for the 2023 general elections and no decision on zoning would be taken until the process is completed.

Although not constitutional, Nigeria's component parts have a gentleman's agreement that the presidency will rotate between the north and the south of the country. President Muhammadu Buhari's tenure will end in 2023 and being a Fulani northern Muslim, it is expected that the next president will come from southern Nigeria.

Since the return to democracy in 1999, the southwest has produced President Olusegun Obasanjo and the south-south President Goodluck Jonathan, so come 2023, the presidency should automatically go to the southeast. However, neither the APC or the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has zoned the presidency, leaving candidates from all over the country to stand.

Senator Adamu said: “We have not produced our candidate for the presidency yet, we have to screen the aspirants to know the way forward. We have aspirants from across the country in the presidential race and we will take the decision when we get there.”

On the high number of the presidential aspirants, Senator Adamu said members of the party could not be denied the right to contest for president. He pointed out that the APC cannot stop our party stalwarts from contesting elections or aspiring for the presidency as it is their right to stand for office.

“There is nothing wrong for anybody aspiring for the exalted seat of the president, it is God that decides who gets what. We have 28 aspirants for the presidential ticket, and everybody knows that all of them cannot get the ticket.

"If it’s God’s wish, they all can even be president of the country one after the other. Our goal is to ensure justice in the choice of who emerges as the candidate of the party, that does not mean we are perfect, but we pray we do the right thing,” Senator Adamu said.

On the possibility of the party adopting the type of consensus arrangement that produced him as its chairman, Senator Adamu said the chairmanship position was not the same as that of the president. He stressed that there was no comparison between the two positions.