Northern governors elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have forwarded the names of five southern aspirants to President Muhammadu Buhari for consideration as a consensus presidential candidate.
It would be recalled that the northern APC governors announced their decision to support power shift to the South after the end of the tenure of President Buhari.
The governors, who also met with Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Monday, reiterated their stance on zoning the presidential ticket of the ruling party to the southern part of the country.
Speaking to State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting with Buhari, the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum and governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, disclosed that the President has requested the governors to have a meeting with the NWC members to resolve the issue of consensus candidate through democratic means.
However, it was gathered that the presidential aspirants shortlisted by the governors are Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; APC national leader, Bola Tinubu; Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi; his Ebonyi State counterpart, David Umahi; and former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.
Speaking on the shortlisted aspirants, Governor Lalong, who spoke during an interview on Channels Television’s programme, Sunrise Daily, on Tuesday, said the APC is looking at the possibility of a consensus candidate.
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He added that the names submitted were graded by the party’s screening committee.
The governor said: “From our own recommendations, as of this morning, we recommended five people. In alphabetical order, we said Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, John Kayode Fayemi, David Umahi and Professor Yemi Osinbajo. Those are the ones we made recommendations and we said we should put them forward.
“Consensus is possible. Right from yesterday up till today, we have been doing consultations like Mr President said, ‘I give you the opportunity, work on it.’
“The governors and the National Working Committee will continue on that consensus. As of yesterday, we were able to even reduce, made recommendations of about five persons, from 23 to recommendations of about 13 aspirants without disqualifying anybody.
“Within that 13 aspirants that were graded by the Screening Committee, we now looked at it and then recommended, that was jointly done by the Progressive governors and members of the National Working Committee, reducing it to five,” Lalong stated.
He, however, noted that the shortlist will not bar other aspirants from contesting the primaries scheduled to hold at the Eagle Square in Abuja today.
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