There were strong indications on Wednesday that the All Progressives Congress national officials were divided over a plan by the President Muhammadu Buhari, to pick his preferred presidential candidate for the party.
Earlier on Wednesday, the APC National Vice Chairman (North-West), Mallam Salihu Lukman, in an open letter to Buhari, warned that picking a successor would be costly and risky for the President and the party.
But two members of the party’s National Working Committee – the Deputy National Secretary, Festus Fuanter, and the National Legal Adviser, Ahmed El-Marzuq, in separate interviews with The PUNCH disagreed with Lukman.
Also, feelers from a meeting of the APC governors’ meeting on Tuesday night indicated that the governors could not agree on a consensus and the fact that the President should pick the party’s presidential candidate.
It was also learnt that the committee, which screened the party’s presidential aspirants, would submit its report to the National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, on Thursday (today).
Buhari, in an interview with Channels Television in January, said he had a favourite candidate, whom he said he would keep to himself.
On Tuesday, the President, who explained the qualities his successor must possess, sought the backing of the APC governors in picking the party’s presidential candidate.
“I wish to solicit the reciprocity and support of the governors and other stakeholders in picking my successor, who would fly the flag of our party for election into the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2023,” the President urged the governors.
But Lukman, in his letter to Buhari, warned that it would be highly risky to adopt the same succession framework of poor relations between predecessors and successor governors, which was largely a product of poorly imposed political succession arrangement in the country.
He stated, “The temptation for leaders to choose their successors is democratically risky and very costly. If in 2013/2014, Your Excellency could submit yourself to the internal democratic process, it is important that your successor also follows the same process.
“Notwithstanding, however, there is the overriding requirement to appeal to you to kindly resist the temptation. I would have wished we had enough time for open debate within our party. Unfortunately, as things are, we have less than one week to settle this matter.
“Like in the case of December 10, 2014, the APC National Convention, everything will be done at this year’s APC National Convention to guarantee a level-playing field for all aspiring presidential candidates of our party. Any recommendation to the contrary will be inimical and injurious to the electoral fortunes of our great party, APC.”
According to him, a major disadvantage of the succession arrangement with governors choosing their successors is that it negatively affects the relationship between the successor and the predecessor.
Lukman recalled the unfortunate third-term agenda of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and how it eventually eroded all his achievements as a leader, warning that it was necessary to caution against any transition initiative that risked being unpopular.
-Punch
