Some stakeholders of the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC), have berated President Muhammadu Buhari over his request to the party’s governors to allow him to pick his successor ahead of Monday’s Presidential Convention of the party.
The stakeholders, who spoke under the aegis of APC Rebirth Group, during a media parley in Abuja, said President Buhari’s desire to reciprocate gestures must not compromise the party’s internal democratic processes.
They wondered if the president is now being influenced by the antics of state governors who often resort to imposing their stooges as successors, saying the president is supposed to be a moral compass to the States’ chief executives.
The Convener of the group, Engr. Aliyu Audu, conceded that the stakeholders recognise the inalienable rights of the president to be interested in whoever succeeds him and the natural desire to reciprocate the gesture of support he received in his 2014 bid to be the party’s flag-bearer for the 2015 presidential election.
The stakeholders however opined that “the choice of the president should not amount to an imposition, or foreclose the chances of a free and fair contest, where the candidate who reflects all the values and virtues of the party and has the potential to defeat the candidates of other political parties will be democratically elected”.
They also painfully recalled how the current National Chairman of the party was imposed on stakeholders in the lead-up to the March 26 national convention.
The stakeholders said; “We say this because of the memories of what transpired at the last national convention of the party where the president picked his choice for the position of the National Chairman and literally forced the other aspirants to step down in a manner that can best be described as an imposition is still very fresh.
“Also, barely a month ago, while fielding questions from journalists after observing the Eid-el-Fitr prayers in Abuja, the president equally said that he has no favourite candidate for the 2023 Presidential election. Instead, he said the one who would succeed him is ‘the person that Nigerians elect’. Our understanding of this statement is that the Nigerian he referred to include members of the All Progressives Congress, through direct or indirect process, should also elect whoever they want to fly the flag of the party in the general elections.
“The best legacy President Buhari can leave for the APC, and Nigeria as a whole, is the legacy of a deeply entrenched democratic process where Nigerians can freely choose who represents them at whatever level in free, fair, credible and transparent processes. This legacy must manifest from the APC, which prides itself as a party with progressives ideals different from the other stocks.
“As someone who came in through a free, fair and credibly contested democratic process in 2015 and also won re-election through the same process in 2019, the president must not only ensure that this standard is maintained, he must keep to his own words and advice, as vividly expressed in the January 6 interview on the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) that the APC must conduct itself properly and ‘allow the system to work’.
“For the APC to avoid finding itself on this path, it must not make the mistake of forcing anyone on the party in whatever guise. The president is free and has the right to have his choice of candidate, but let everyone be made to test their popularity in the field so that representatives of the party in the form of delegates will choose who they deem to be the best, more qualified and popular to win us the 2023 presidential election”, the stakeholders added.
