THE All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary screening panel on Friday submitted its report to the party with a strong recommendation that the party should adopt a young aspirant as its candidate in the 2023 presidential election.
The chairman of the panel, John Odigie-Oyegun, disclosed this while submitting the panel’s report to the party’s national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, at the party’s secretariat in Abuja.
Oyegun also announced that his panel disqualified 10 aspirants out of the 23 that appeared before it.
According to him, only 13 aspirants were cleared ahead of the party’s Monday’s presidential convention.
The former national chairman of the APC did not reveal the identities of those that were disqualified but offered insights into the criteria used to pick those cleared for the presidential primary.
Oyegun said “the ability to lead, your background, your experience, your understanding of the Nigerian situation, your ideas as to how issues, difficulties, problems and the rest can be addressed and how the country can be moved forward became a principal consideration.”
The former Edo State governor, who commended the party for having quality people anxious to govern the country, however, asked the APC National Working Committee (NWC) to give priority to those he described as “youthful members of the party” in its choice of presidential candidate.
He said: “The point I want to make is the quality of the people that want to govern this country. The second point I want to make is that we were surprised by the active participation of youthful members of the party, some of whom really surprised us as to what they have accomplished in life, their understanding of the situation in this country and why they want to have the privilege of governing this country.
“What was important was that they so believe in the country and the party that they were able to pay the sums that some of us considered princely sum to participate in the process. I think the party ought to pat itself on the back for that.”
Emphasising the choice of one of the youthful members of the party as the party’s presidential standardbearer, Oyegun said the list of the aspirants was scaled down from 23 to 13 based on the panel’s conviction of the understanding of issues of governance by the successful aspirants.
He said: “Our report is basically simple and short and we didn’t want to beat about the bush. There were two aspects to it: Constitutional qualification for you to aspire to be a president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That was simple. That was straightforward and on that basis, every single aspirant that presented himself qualified because it was basic, it was simple. But we are a governing party and we are keen on continuing the process and replacing at the proper time our president with yet another member of the party.
“And so the ability to lead, your background, your experience, your understanding of the Nigerian situation, your ideas as to how issues, difficulties, problems and the rest can be addressed and how the country can be moved forward became a principal consideration.
“It is on that basis, who are you? What have you achieved? What is the understanding of your nation and what you think you can contribute to moving the nation forward? It was on the basis of that that we made our final shortlist. I don’t want to read the names, I think we leave that to you. But we have a shortlist. We brought the number severely down to 13.
“We could have cut it a little shorter but we wanted deliberately, the younger element to surface for them to be seen, for them to be noticed, who knows. We hand them to the party and it is for the party to decide the preferred candidate.
“It is also an opportunity to showcase the kind of people that exist within the party. Their youthfulness, their kind of experience, let the world know that we care for the young and this is a party that when we say the young can aspire, we really mean it. This has been showcased in the report that we have written.”
In apparent reference to agitation for power shift to the southern part of the country, the two-term Edo State governor told the APC national leadership to reckon with the demand for power rotation.
“We only drew a word of caution; that there is this cleavage that is gradually becoming centre stage in national discourse as between the North and the South as regards presidency and we advised strongly that the party should please think of it in making its decision, address it and let it influence their thought because it has its own implication.”
The APC chairman, Adamu, in his response, said the recommendation of choosing from among youthful members would be given consideration at the highest level of the party. Senator Adamu said it was heartwarming to note that “they have among them people who braved the spirit of competition and offered themselves to be considered for this important office in the land.
“They have done this in keeping with the spirit of not-too-young-to-run. We feel encouraged by the party that young people and young women have offered themselves to contest for this office. As it is with every competition, we receive the report now on each of them. “We will consider it at the very highest level of the party and see how we approach the forthcoming convention, which has the ultimate authority and the choice of who takes the flag of our party.
“The flag does not belong to me, it doesn’t belong to any one of us, it is the flag of the party, the corporate body called the APC and it is my hope that that spirit will be obeyed.”
Responding to the demand for consideration of power shift to the South, Adamu said he was hopeful that those to take decisions would not discountenance the panel’s observation.
“The chairman, in his presentation, did allude to the north/south divide. It is our hope that due consideration will be given on the basis of the facts available to those who would be opportune to be behind the decision,” he stated.
Speaking with newsmen after submitting his panel’s report, Chief Oyegun dropped the hint that only one of the aspirants expressed strong reservations about the consensus option in picking the party’s choice.
“Against every aspirant, the issue of consensus and it was a pleasant surprise that 98 to 99 per cent agreed that the party is supreme. And that whatever the party finally decides with proper consultation, they will likely accept. We had only one exception who said yes, he would accept consensus so long as it is built on him.
“So, I think it is a point that needs to be made and emphasised. So, that gives you a lot of leeway in the days and hours ahead to trim down even more drastically. But finally, we think you should not be afraid of a contested primary if anybody insists on the contest,” Oyegun added.