No Consensus For Jonathan, Osinbajo, Others– APC National Chairman

Any hope that the All Progressives Congress, APC, will field former President, Goodluck Jonathan, as it’s consensus presidential candidate may have been laid to rest as the National Chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, has debunked the insinuations.

Adamu, during a chat with Voice of America Hausa service monitored in Abuja on Wednesday evening, said there would be no consensus arrangement for any of the presidential aspirants.

There has been insinuation that the same template that produced Adamu during the party’s National Convention in 2022, will be adopted to produce the party’s presidential flagbearer.

Jonathan has been heavily linked with reports saying the inability of the party to conduct its presidential screening exercise was due to plans to put Jonathan on the ballot based on consensus.

The former president has also been quoted as giving a condition to the party to make him a sole candidate through a consensus arrangement before he joins the party.

Jonathan or the party has not refuted the claim.

But Adamu discountenanced that when asked if the party was forcing a consensus, saying, “There is no truth in what you said. The reason is that the chairmanship seat is not the same as that of the tussle for the Presidency of the country. You can’t even compare the two of them. That question does not arise.

“However, the party has laid down its rules and regulations for the aspirants. We would scrutinise all of them based on our guidelines to be sure we pick the right candidate for the party.”

Adamu said every aspirant has the right to aspire adding, “You can’t stop a party stalwart from contesting election or aspiring for the Presidency. It is their rights and we are happy for them. There is nothing wrong for anybody aspiring for the exalted seat of the presidency. It is God that decides who gets what.

“Once God makes up His mind and says this is who He wants, that is what we are praying for. We have 28 aspirants for the presidential ticket and everybody knows that all of them cannot get the ticket.

“If it is God’s wish, they all can even be president of the country one after the other. Ours is to ensure justice in the choice of who emerges candidate of the party. That does not mean we are perfect. But we pray we do the right thing.”

He discredited reports that aspirants were inducing delegates with money further noting that, “For now, there is no law against aspirants taking campaign to delegates. I don’t have evidence that aspirants are sharing money to delegates. For me it’s the delegates that are selling their conscience which is not proper.

“Our delegates should know that anybody sharing money to them can’t be the right candidate of the party. He doesn’t mean well for the country. I don’t have solution for the problem.”

The APC holds its presidential primary on May 29 and 30 at Eagle Square Abuja.