- Ndume, PANDEF, Others Differ
Mixed reactions have continued to trail reports which hinted that President Muhammadu Buhari might have given a subtle notice to governors elected under the platform the All Progressives Congress (APC), asking them to search for an ideal successor ahead of the party’s National Convention scheduled for June 6-7, 2022.
This is as several individuals, groups have been giving their takes on the President’s choice of words while speaking with the APC Governors.
Buhari, just before he jetted out for Spain on Tuesday met with the APC governors, appealing to them to ensure that all interests ‘converge’ as regards the outcome of the presidential primary. The President added that the person who emerges as the presidential candidate must be the one who can give Nigerians a sense of victory even before the polls.
“I wish to solicit the reciprocity and support of the Governors and other stakeholders in picking my successor, who would fly the flag of our party for election into the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2023. ” The President had told the Progressive Governors.
While some are throwing their weight behind the president to choose his successor, others have termed the move as undemocratic.
Speaking on the matter, the former Senate Minority leader and the Director-General of Rotimi Amaechi Presidential Campaign Organisation, Senator Ali Ndume, has backed Buhari on the comment, saying it is democratic.
Ndume who said that there was nothing wrong in Buhari wanting to pick his successor, noted that there is no President in the world that will not name his successor or be interested in who succeeds him after office.
Ndume who said that former President of the United States of America, USA, Barack Obama picked interest in his Vice, Joe Biden to succeed him and he worked very hard to support Biden, said that there was nothing wrong with the position of President Buhari on the issue.
In his words, “The call by President Buhari that he should be allowed to pick his successor is not out of place, it is democratic and he was democratic about it. There is no President that will not name his successor. I would have been disappointed if the President had left the issue open without being interested in who should succeed him. As he said, the Governors were allowed to name their successors, the President should be allowed to do same. There is nothing out of place for the President to do that.”
However, the APC National Stakeholders, in their reaction questioned why the president is being influenced by the antics of state governors who often resort to imposing their stooges as successors.
The stakeholders under the aegis of APC Rebirth Group, urged Buhari to ignore bad politics and ensure that he leaves a 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 call was made at a media parley in Abuja convened by Engr. Aliyu Audu and Mohammed Saidu Etsu, a former national chairmanship aspirant.
Audu 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.”
“The best legacy President 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.”
In like terms, Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) in a statement made available to newsmen by its National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Ken Robinson, said: “President Buhari, for some strange reasons, was aristocratic and played the “good boy”, in appealing to his APC governors to allow him to pick the party’s presidential candidate, ‘his successor’ in his own words.
“The reflection is that if governors, the “demi-gods” and their associates can impose their preferred persons in the states, why won’t the President who could be characterised as the ‘god’ of Nigeria, not do likewise?
“They are all, simply, leveraging the overwhelming powers vested in the executive arm of government by the military imposed 1999 Constitution.
“It’s unfortunate that the vast majority of citizens, and even members of political parties, do not participate in processes that produce those who would go on to contest elections and eventually become our president, governors and lawmakers. We now have situations where less than 800 persons choose a major party’s presidential candidate, in a country of over 200 million people.
“It is absurd! And when you talk, they will readily assert that it is a party affair. This has to stop. There must be an urgent review of the entire leadership’ selection process to involve greater participation of citizens, particularly membership of the political parties.”
