By Ezeocha Nzeh
President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to pick his successor in 2023 may have earned him more condemnations than commendation, as several All Progressives Congress (APC) stakeholders have warned him against such imposition on the party
The president had while addressing APC Governors on Tuesday at the presidential villa, urged them to reciprocate his gesture of allowing them seek second terms in office, as well as picking their successors, by allowing him to pick his own successor as the party goes into its presidential primaries that is scheduled between June 6 and 8 in Abuja
The stakeholders who reacted to the President’s request to the party’s governors wondered if the president had endorsed the undemocratic practice of the Governors, who unilaterally impose candidates on the party, in the name of consensus
They regretted that the president, rather than condemning the actions of the Governors, has rather decided to join in going the undemocratic way of trying to impose a presidential candidate on the party, ahead of the 2023 polls, warning that such move could spell doom for the APC in 2023
Convener of the APC Rebirth Group, Aliyu Audu, warned in a press conference on Wednesday that President Buhari’s desire to reciprocate gestures must not compromise the party’s internal democratic processes.
“The choice of the president should not amount to an imposition or foreclose the chances of a free and fair contest where the candidate who reflects all the values and virtues of the party and has the potential to defeat the candidates of other political parties will be democratically elected”.
Recalling how the current National Chairman of the party was imposed on stakeholders in the lead up to the March 26 national convention, the APC stakeholders said; “We say this because the memories of what transpired at the last national convention of the party where the president picked his choice for the position of the National Chairman and literally forced the other aspirants to step down in a manner that can best be described as an imposition is still very fresh.
“In a January 6, 2022 interview with the Nigerian Television Authority NTA, the president stated clearly that he would not play the role of a kingmaker in the choice of his successor and any other elective office, just as he stated that he tried about three times to contest for President before he emerged, and so anyone that wants to become the next president should also work for it.
“Barely a month ago, while fielding questions from journalists after observing the Eid-el-Fitr prayers in Abuja, the president equally said that he has no favourite candidate for the 2023 Presidential election. Instead, he said the one who would succeed him is ‘the person that Nigerians elect’.
“Our understanding of this statement is that the Nigerian he referred to include members of the All Progressives Congress through direct or indirect process should also elect whoever they want to fly the flag of the party in the general elections.
“One then wonders what has informed the change of position of the president on how his successor or any other elected official should emerge. If he is influenced by what is obtainable at the states where governors brazenly handpick aspirants at different elections, then it is imperative to remind the president that he is supposed to be the moral compass for us as members of the party and Nigerians as a whole. As the president and leader of the party, it is a moral responsibility that he sets examples for the governors and future elected leaders to emulate and not the other way round.
“The best legacy President Muhammadu Buhari can leave for the APC and Nigeria as a whole is the legacy of a deeply entrenched democratic process where Nigerians can freely choose who represents them at whatever level in free, fair, credible and transparent processes. This legacy must manifest from the All Progressives Congress which prides itself as a party with progressives ideals different from the other stocks.
“As someone who came in through a free, fair and credibly contested democratic process in 2015 and also won re-election through the same process in 2019, the president must not only ensure that this standard is maintained, he must keep to his own words and advice as vividly expressed in the January 6 interview on the Nigeria Television Authority that the APC must conduct itself properly and ‘allow the system to work’
“For the APC to avoid finding itself on this path, it must not make the mistake of forcing anyone on the party in whatever guise. The president is free and has the right to have his choice of candidate, but let everyone be made to test their popularity in the field so that representatives of the party in the form of delegates will choose who they deem to be the best, more qualified and popular to win us the 2023 presidential election”, the stakeholders added.
Also joining in rejecting the president’s request, a member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC, Salihu Moh. Lukman, has cautioned President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that leaves office in 2023 with his record and integrity intact, and avoid making late minute mistakes that would rubbish all his hard earned intergrity while in office
Lukman, who is the National Vice Chairman, North-west, in the new APC NWC said this in an open letter to the President on Wednesday in Abuja, with the titled “Succession and 2023 APC Presidential Candidate: Open Letter to President Muhammadu Buhari,”
The former Director General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum PGF noted that it is important therefore to caution APC to keep faith with basic tenets of democracy as its major campaign message to Nigerians for the 2023 elections.
“This was eloquently highlighted in Your Excellency’s message to our Progressive Governors when you stated that ‘the key to electoral successes is the ability to hold consultations and for members to put the nation above other interests.’
“The temptation for leaders to choose their successors is democratically risky and very costly. If in 2013/2014, Your Excellency could submit yourself to internal democratic processes, it is important that your successor also follows the same process.
“It may also be necessary to highlight that a major disadvantage with succession arrangement whereby Governors chose their successors is that it negatively affects relationship between the successor and the predecessor, which undermines capacity to influence actions or inactions of successors by their predecessors.
“Your Excellency, since the period of negotiating the merger that produce our party APC, I have been a proponent of ensuring that our party takes every step to preserve our leaders who could exercise moral authority.
“This means that leaders who are highly respected on account of their standing in society should not hold elective or appointive positions.”
