Salihu Lukman, the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Vice Chairman for North West, has stated that the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, is not on the list of preferred candidates to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
He revealed this in a statement titled “Electoral Contests and Public Expectations: Matching Hopes with Reality” on Tuesday.
According to him, this is why some major members of the political establishment and the presidency have not openly supported Tinubu’s desire.
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He named Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and former President Goodluck Jonathan as favoured candidates.
Lukman, a member of the APC National Working Committee, went on to say that Senate President Ahmad Lawan was chosen as a backup alternative to appeal to the sentiments of the northern region.
In his announcement, the APC chieftain stated that individuals behind the conspiracy were not APC members but forces outside the party, and that their plan had been in the works since April 2022.
Nduka Ogbaigbena, the publisher and owner of This Day Newspaper and Arise Television, as well as 14 current governors, 13 previous governors, and three former Senate presidents, were named as those behind the scheme by the APC National Vice Chairman.
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He stated that when their strategy for a consensus candidate failed and Tinubu emerged as the APC presidential candidate for 2023 as a result of President Buhari’s fairness in the process, they used the CBN’s cashless policy/naira swap policy to harm Asiwaju Tinubu’s candidacy.
He said: “It may also be important to remind Nigerians that the scheming around the emergence of a so-called consensus candidate was ridiculously stretched beyond the APC to include people like former President Goodluck Jonathan and Mr. Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria.
“These were never members of the APC. But with the active collaboration of some influential people outside the APC, such as Chief Nduka Ogbaigbena, publisher and owner of This day Newspaper and Arise Television, some sophisticated mobilization of so-called ‘hundred eminent businessmen, political, media, and civil society leaders, including 14 current governors, 13 former governors as well as three former senate presidents’ commenced around April 2022.
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“Gradually, this scheming shifted and was entrenched within APC. By May 2023, when the party began to sell its nomination forms to aspiring candidates, forms were purchased by some APC leaders for former President Goodluck Jonathan and Mr. Godwin Emefiele.
“Eventually, when these schemers couldn’t succeed in popularising both former President Jonathan and Mr. Emefiele as possible contenders to emerge as consensus Presidential candidates for APC, the Senate President, Sen. Ahmed Lawan, was recruited and promoted.
“It is on record that Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, on the eve of the Convention that elected Asiwaju Tinubu as the Presidential candidate of the party, announced to NWC members that Sen. Ahmed Lawan was the consensus presidential candidate of the party. Members of the NWC, together with Progressive Governors, rose against that move. Thanks to President Muhammadu Buhari, the contest for the Presidential candidate of APC was thrown open, and Asiwaju won with a wide merging.
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“Part of the dummy promoted within the APC to attempt to popularise the choice of a Northerner, Sen. Ahmed Lawan as a consensus candidate was that since PDP had elected Alh. Atiku Abubakar, a Northerner as its Presidential Candidate, we needed to also elect a Northern so that we can win the votes of Northerners. This is completely inconsiderate of the popular agitation for power shift in the country.
“It is also insensitive of the potential instability that the choice of another Northerner emerging as President of the country could cause. Ahead of the APC National Convention, APC Governors from the North had already declared their opposition against a Northerner emerging as APC Presidential candidate.”
Lukman however predicted that despite the forces against his candidacy, Tinubu would win the 2023 presidential election.
“Of course, forces within the APC are also uncomfortable with the possibility that Asiwaju Tinubu will be the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Schemers that failed to produce either Mr. Emefiele or former President Jonathan or Sen. Ahmed Lawan as a consensus candidate of APC have unleashed Mr. Emefiele’s so-called cashless policy to damage the APC and the candidature of Asiwaju Tinubu. But like they failed in the case of the consensus presidential candidate, they are also failing in their intrigues to damage the APC and the candidature of Asiwaju Tinubu.
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As Asiwaju Tinubu emerged as the Presidential candidate of APC despite their machinations, Asiwaju Tinubu will also become elected as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, God willing,” he said.
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