The new mega opposition party being formed by the merger of four opposition parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has started zoning its national offices with the South-West geopolitical zone sure to produce the national chairman.
However, the remaining offices have not been completely zoned as the structure of the zoning would affect the choice of their presidential candidate for the 2015 elections.
The merging parties: the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria Peoples’ Party (ANPP) and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) held a series of meetings last week to agree on the final APC structure.
However, it has been gathered that zones eyeing the Presidency, such as the North and the South-East have not shown much interest in the party’s national offices, thus leaving the South-West to produce the chairman.
According to a top official of one of the parties, who declined being mentioned, though the party was yet to agree on the structure, all indications pointed to the South-West as producing the chairman.
The source said the various interests were making calculations ahead of 2015 general elections.
He explained that a decision on the party structure and the membership of the Interim Management Committee would have far-reaching implications on which part of the country produces the APC standard-bearer.
He said, “You know, if, for example, the national chairman comes from a certain area, you do not expect the party’s presidential candidate to come from the same area. These are some of the issues that have to be resolved quickly before we move forward.”
He also spoke about the perceived interest of Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwual, in the presidential ticket of the APC.
He said, “Truly, Tambuwal has shown interest in the presidential ticket. He is banking on a situation where if the party leaders are not able to reach a consensus on who to fly the flag among the current members of the party, then he will step in.”
However, the National Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and his counterpart in the Congress for Progressive Change, Rotimi Fashakin, said that the issue of the party structure was what most important now.
Mohammed said, “We have already agreed on our constitution and our manifesto; the number of offices to be created and officers to be elected into them have been agreed upon based on the constitution of the party.
Fashakin said, “We have talked at various levels of leadership as what should be what.
“We are leaving it for our leaders, the merger committees have their terms of reference. They are working out modalities among themselves.”