*As Buhari pushes for consensus Northern party chairman
By Chesa Chesa
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has officially zoned its chairmanship ticket in the forthcoming national convention to the North, with the pendulum thus swinging towards a Southern presidential candidate in the 2023 general election.
This position was disclosed after an emergency meeting between APC governors and President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Tuesday.
The Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) after their meeting with President Buhari disclosed that the ruling party had agreed to alternate offices between the north and south in the next month’s convention, after series of bickering over timing and reconciliation moves.
Speaking at a press briefing after the meeting, Kaduna Governor Mallam Nasir El-Rufa’i, however, dispelled reports of division among the APC Governors, stressing that the party had reached an agreement on the zoning formula.
Explaining the newly agreed arrangements with regards to sharing positions in the party, El-Rufa’i said all party offices that were occupied by northerners in the last eight years will now go to the South and vice versa under the new arrangement.
“We have agreed a zoning formula for all the six geo-political zones. Essentially, northern zone will have the positions the South had in the last eight years and vice versa.
“It is a very simple, equitable and fair formula. We will now go back and consult at the zonal level and look at the positions that are available and the process of the convention preparation we started in earnest.
“So, by the grace of God, on the 26th of March, we would have done our national convention,” he said.
Chairman of the PGF, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, who is also Governor of Kebbi State, further disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari gave the party the go-ahead to pick consensus candidates ahead of the convention, although without excluding the options of full-fledged primary election, whether direct or indirect.
According to Bagudu: “On Consensus, Mr. President reminded us that we have produced a number of national chairmen by consensus; Baba Akande emerged as the pioneer chairman of the party by consensus; His Excellency John Oyegun emerged by consensus; His Excellency Adams Oshiomhole emerged by consensus.
“So, he (Buhari) is a believer in consensus as one of the options of producing leadership, and he urged us to explore consensus, so that we can generate a list.
At the meeting were Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo; Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha and the Chief of Staff to the President, Professor Ibrahim Gambari.
Nineteen of the Governors in attendance at the meeting were from Yobe, Ekiti, Ebonyi, Jigawa, Cross River, Kaduna, Lagos, Borno, Niger, Gombe, Osun, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Kwara, Kano, Imo, Kogi, Ogun, and Plateau States; while the outgoing Anambra Deputy Governor also attended.
