Consensus: APC leaders under pressure ahead of Saturday convention

Leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) are currently under pressure as they battle to get an acceptable consensus candidate as the first option for its national convention billed to hold on Saturday.

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Gov. Abudulahi Sule of Nasarawa as saying that the party was still working on getting the acceptable consensus candidate as of Friday evening.

He said the consensus was to ensure a peaceful and rancour-free national convention.

Sule, who is the Chairman of the APC Sub-Committee on Media and Publicity, said this at a news conference on Friday in Abuja, at the party’s national secretariat.

“Before we go into the convention, our first choice is always consensus, and we are still on that first choice.

“However, democracy demands, even our party’s constitution and the constitution of Nigeria demand that if that doesn’t work, we’ll go ahead and look at the other options.

“But right now, that remains our option, number one,” he said.

He, however, said that Section 84(12) of the 2021 Electoral Act, which restricted political appointees from being voting delegates or being voted for at convention or congress of any political party, does not affect APC delegates to its convention.

Recall that Section 84 (12) of the recently amended 2021 Electoral Act, stated that, “no political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate or be voted for at the convention or congress of any political party.”

It further stated that this was especially for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election.

The implication of the Act is that except a political office holder or public servant resigned from office three months before the commencement of party primaries, he or she cannot be a candidate for elections.

The Nasarawa governor, however, said the clause does not affect delegates to the APC national convention because they were classified as statutory delegates.

He added that the party’s unity list was being worked on and would be made available when ready.

“If you are talking of consensus, you must have a unity list, because that’s the whole essence of consensus,” he said.

Sule had earlier said that the APC leadership would be guided by the Electoral Act in the conduct of Saturday’s national convention.

Recall that seven aspirants in the APC national chairmanship race had obtained and submitted their Expression of Interest and Nomination forms at the cost of N20 million each.

The aspirants included: Malam Saliu Mustapha, a former Deputy National Chairman of the defunct Congress for Progressives Congress (CPC) and Sen. George Akume, Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs.

Others were: Sen. Abudulahi Adamu, Sen. Sani Musa, Sen. Tanko Al-Makura and former Gov. Abudulaziz Yari of Zamfara.

The Eagle Square, venue of the convention located in the Central Business District, is already wearing a new look with different shades of decorations.

No fewer than 4,000 delegates from across the country are expected to elect 66 officials, including 21 National Working Committee (NWC) members and 45 non-NWC members to manage the party’s affairs for the next four years.

Itinerant traders took advantage of a large number of party faithful, both at the party secretariat and Eagle Square to carry out brisk business as they were seen selling branded T-shirts, wrappers, hats, key holders, wristbands and other souvenirs.

Heavy security presence had also been noticed not just at Eagle Square, but around entrance to the venue.

Most hotels in Abuja city centre and in the satellite towns had been fully booked a week before the convention.