President Muhammadu Buhari says he has no anointed candidate going into Tuesday’s presidential primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The President made the clarification in a Monday statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.
The clarification came amid reports that National Chairman of the APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu announced Senate President Ahmad Lawan as the consensus presidential candidate of the party on Monday.
The announcement, which reportedly enjoyed the support of the president, was said to have prompted governors elected on the APC platform to rush to the Presidential Villa, Abuja to hold an emergency meeting with President Buhari.
The statement read, “President Muhammadu Buhari, Monday afternoon cleared all doubts about where he stands on the choice of a presidential candidate for the governing All Progressives Congress, APC, declaring before the party’s 14 governors of northern states that he has “no preferred candidate,” and has “anointed no one,” and is determined to ensure that “there shall be no imposition of any candidate on the party.”
“Speaking at a meeting with the Governors at the State House, Abuja, President Buhari said the party is important and its members must be respected, and made to feel they are important.
“The President said he had a clear mind about what he was doing and asked the APC governors to feel the same way: “You were elected as I was. Have a clear mind as I have. God gave us the chance; we have no reason to complain. We must be ready to take pain as we take the joy. Allow the delegates to decide. The Party must participate, nobody will appoint anybody.”
“Earlier in their addresses, the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Governor Simon Bako Lalong and Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu of the Progressive Governors Forum, said they had come to affirm the position of the Northern Governors that the party’s candidate in the presidential election shall come from the southern part of the country.
“They apologised to the President for the leakage of their signed memorandum which was not in support of any particular candidate and gave assurances to the President on their readiness to accept his leadership on the matter.”