By Mandy Park
The announcement of Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, as the consensus presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has sparked a fresh crisis in the ruling party.
This comes after northern governors elected on the APC platform have rejected his emergence as the party’s consensus for the February 25 presidential election.
THE WHISTLER earlier reported that 11 serving and former governors of the party had kicked against President Muhammadu Buhari’s entreaty to be allowed to single-handedly decide who emerges as the party’s 2023 presidential candidate
“After careful deliberation, we wish to state our firm conviction that after eight years in office of President Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the APC for the 2023 elections should be one of our teeming members from the southern states of Nigeria.
In a communique they issued after their meeting in Abuja, “It is a question of honour for the APC, an obligation that is not in any way affected by the decisions taken by another political party. We affirm that upholding this principle is in the interest of building a stronger, more united and more progressive country.
“We, therefore, wish to strongly recommend to President Muhammadu Buhari that the search for a successor as the APC’s presidential candidate be limited to our compatriots from the southern States.”
The governors had appealed to “all aspirants from the northern states to withdraw in the national interest and allow only the aspirants from the south to proceed to the primaries.”
