“The first test of whether we are getting it right will be in the caliber of the leadership of the party that will be presented after we conclude the negotiation.”
There is be more trouble in former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s camp as ex-chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salifu Lukman, said that the coalition mobilising against President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will consider fairness in its choice of presidential candidate.
The former All Progressives Vice President North said the coalition is aware of the knotty issue about the turn of the South to produce a presidential candidate and the coalition would consider that. …CONTINUE READING
Lukman who was on the Morning Show on Arise Television, said however, the coalition would ensure that the popular candidate emerges from the process.
Fielding questions from an anchor on the Morning Show who asked if there was a possibility of a southern candidate emerging for the 2027 presidential race Lukman said: “No doubt.”
He stated further that: “Once you start talking of conceding, you are not even projecting that election will take place within the party.
“The most fundamental issue is that election must take place. Whoever has majority followership should be the person who will be fielded by the party.
“Now, of course, the other issue, which is around the question of equity, which is the point, the last point you are making around the question of Southern candidate, you know, that is the turn of the South to spend another eight years.
“All those are issues that we can tell Nigerians, that internally, in terms of negotiating the rule of the party, will make sure that those are addressed and factored in.
“But at the end of the day, whatever rule we are going to put in place will not be such that it will undermine the right of party members to participate.
The former APC chieftain said: “You know, it’s a very delicate situation. Fundamentally, at this preliminary stage, what we are telling everybody in the coalition is that, first and foremost, drop your ambition, let’s focus on building the party first.
He said that one major issue of concern now to the coalition is to field credible persons for the executive positions of the party executives.
He said they are searching and negotiating for men who will hold the coalition executive offices without desperation to leave such office to become presidential appointees.
Lukman said the coalition has concluded that it must produce a party chairman who has the same profile as the president and the strength of character to speak truth to power.
His words: “If we don’t do that, people with ambition will take over the structures of the party. And at the end of the day, they will now want to put their surrogates as leaders of the party.
“And we will end up going back to where we are coming from. This is the position for all of us. Let us get the party right and let us ensure the party has the right leadership. A leadership that is not going to have the kind of outlook of being a surrogate to aspiring candidates.
“Leaders who can look at everybody. For instance, I have several times, said the national chairman should have the profile of the president. If the president is doing wrong things, he or she can walk up to the president and say, Mr. President, this is not right.
“This is what should be done. You cannot allow a situation where a potential presidential candidate will put his surrogate as the national chairman of the party. And that surrogate will end up becoming part of the protocol team of the president, escorting the president to the airport when he is traveling, or being at the airport to be part of the reception team.
“That cannot be a national chairman of the party. Also, all members of the national working committee, for instance, must be people of standing so that they will not be so carried away by the desperation to become ministers or appointees of government. I mean, these are very difficult things, but they are being negotiated.
“The first test of whether we are getting it right will be in the caliber of the leadership of the party that will be presented after we conclude the negotiation.”
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