Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s president, has invited all seven chairmanship aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to an emergency meeting at the Aso Rock Villa, today, Wednesday.
The invitation, THE WITNESS learnt, is to attempt to build a consensus ahead of party’s national convention billed for March 26.
Although President Buhari is said to have backed Senator Abdullahi Adamu, a former Nasarawa State governor as consensus candidate, the APC Senate Caucus declined to endorse him, even as other aspirants have insisted on going ahead to contest for the position.
Senator Tanko Al-makura, also a former governor of Nasarawa, who is backed by members of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), one of the main legacy parties that formed the APC in 2013, had since argued that the president did not endorse Adamu.
In all, seven aspirants are in the race to lead the party and have all purchased nomination forms.
Apart from Adamu and Al-Makura, other aspirants include Malam Saliu Mustapha; Sen. Sani Mohammed Musa and Mohammed Etsu (Niger State); ex-Governor George Akume (Benue) and a former chairman of the NGF Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara).
Yari, Mustapha, Al-Makura and Musa met yesterday in Abuja. But details of their discussions were not made public.
A top party source told THE WITNESSES that the President may use today’s meeting with chairmanship aspirants either to restate his consensus position or allow an open race for the highest office.
“The idea is to try build a consensus so that there won’t be rancour at the convention,” the source said. “Buhari is interested in ensuring that the outcome is peaceful and is acceptable to all parties.”
Meanwhile, Ovie Omo-Agege, deputy senate president and Mai Mala Buni, chairman of the APC caretaker committee, are to brief the party’s senators on preparation for the convention on Wednesday.
Omo-Agege, who presided over plenary yesterday, conveyed notice of the meeting in a letter addressed to the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and signed by the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi.
He said Yari, one of the aspirants, would also address the caucus.