OPINION:  APC presidential primaries: if Buhari remains neutral, Tinubu will triumph, By Kola Amzat

Already, it’s a maddening crowd.  Maddening crowd indeed! As we speak, more than 25 APC top party men are patiently awaiting screening after the submission of their forms as contestants for the office of the president of our dear nation.

Unless some are screened out or forced to withdraw, the implication is that they’ve finally resolved to throw their hats into the ring and rough it out with other contestants comes May 28. The most unfortunate in the whole drama is that, President Buhari himself is not helping matters.

He has contributed to the making of the maddening crowd under the guise of allowing democratic orders and ethos to prevail. The president hasn’t accorded that very important office, the respect, honor and dignity it deserves. For emphasis; the office of the president is not for every Tom, Dick and Harry. It’s for the most accomplished amongst the accomplices.

The office is for those visionary men of valor, gargantuan standing, great mind, undoubted capacity and uncommon understanding of all issues. With the level of sophistication Nigeria has attained today, it’s compelling that the next Nigerian president must indeed be a man with helicopter views, as well having guts, courage and resolve. How many of those who are aspiring for the office are imbued with those diverse qualities?    

The president has also not convinced Nigerians that he belongs to that class of illustrious and credible global leaders who against all odds, purposed to uphold the tenets and ideals of democracy in their domains, particularly with the way & manner he recently single-handedly imposed Senator Adamu Abdulahi as Chairman of APC at the very last moment during the APC convention, even though there were other resourceful, very vibrant, tested & trusted and result oriented, as well as youthful aspirants desirous of the office.

This is the main reason reasons why the generality of Nigerians are not only wary, but are circumspect and utterly confuse of what shade the forthcoming APC presidential primary will take. Nigerians are of the strong views that the president and his team have perfected surreptitious and clandestine strategy to manipulate and hijack the process to suit the purpose of power brokers in the North. The onus is therefore on him to make spirited efforts invalidating the doubts of Nigerians by allowing the primary process to proceed un-hijacked, un-doctored, unfettered and un-disturbed.  

Meanwhile, despite the misgivings above, all the presidential aspirants are on the fields with their large entourage, meeting and canvassing for supports of delegates across the country. Notwithstanding the enormity of this exercise, quite a number of them have been very resolute, relentless, dogged and purposed to seeing it to the end, even though they are aware that ultimately, just only one candidate would emerge as the flag-bearer.  We must sincerely commend their patriotic zeal in this regard.

Meanwhile, of all the candidates in the political turf wooing Nigerians and delegates, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has particularly being quite remarkable, dogged, commanding and very impressive on the field. On daily basis, he’s being traversing the length and breadth of the nation connecting & interfacing with supposed delegates across the country canvassing for their supports, reeling out his manifestoes and affirming it to all and sundry why Nigerians in all walks of life should repose trust & confidence in him by entrusting him with the nation leadership so that he could re-direct, re-focus, re-position and re-create the country.

He’s almost covered the entire North-North West, North East and North Central. He has covered the whole South West. While he’s expected to berth in South South and South East in the last phase of his engagement with the stakeholders, his foot soldiers- SWAGA, Asiwaju Support Groups and other political groups having sympathy for him are already in the two (2) zones intensively engaging the electorates and particularly, would-be delegates to the presidential primary.

The center-piece of this write-up is that Tinubu presidency bid has been greeted with uncommon enthusiasm and excitement all over, reminiscent of what the nation experienced during the MKO Abiola engagement period.

In the North West comprising Kano, Sokoto, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kaduna, Zamfara, Katsina, Tinubu is maintaining an unassailable lead amongst the aspirants with the governors of the states and other top political figures, as well as office holders already on his side.

The same goes for the North East and North Central with notable key political personalities of states of Bornu, Adamawa, Yobe, Gombe, Bauchi, Taraba, Niger, Benue, Kwara, Nassarawa and Plateau rooting for his emergence as the presidential candidate of the party.

And of course, South West remains his stronghold and fortress even despite the aspirations of a couple of aspirants of the zone’s stock. The party has announced to the whole world that APC is poised to elect his presidential candidate through indirect primary.

A couple of weeks ago, the party affirmed that about 7,600 delegates will be saddled with the responsibility of chosen the presidential flag-bearer. Just yesterday, there was another news emanating from the party that 3 delegates each will be elected from 774 LGAs across the federation to elect the flag-bearer.

Whatever method or modality to be adopted, the party must ensure that the process is not shrouded in secrecy so much that it would lose the test of credibility and acceptability even before it starts. All stakeholders must be carried along. The president and the party must make efforts to disabuse the minds of party faithful harboring discontentment and frustration that the president and cabal have already in place an anointed candidate.

What the generality of party men & women are clamoring and advocating for, is level playing ground for aspirants so that the most popular and acceptable candidate will emerge to fly the party flag.

With Asiwaju Tinubu tremendous work in form of consultation and engagement in all the nooks & crannies of the country, there exists no doubt in our minds that he remains the candidate to beat during the APC primary and ultimately, during the general elections comes 2023.

Won’t it be beneficial to the party to present its best candidate to slug it out with opposition parties’ candidates rather than allowing unpopular and unacceptable candidate to emerge at the primary and therefore go ahead to disgrace the party during the general election? Won’t it be logical for the president to have someone who is sufficiently familiar with APC DNA in its totality to take over the baton of nation leadership and steer it to the point of safety?

In saner climes where leadership capacity, visible political antecedents, possession of knowledge and ideas of all facets of governance are accorded priority, man of Asiwaju Tinubu shouldn’t struggle before the mantle of leadership is placed on his laps. But, if that’s the cross this enigmatic man of many parts must bear to ascend the throne, so be it. This is therefore a clarion call to President Buhari to make valiant efforts in finishing his eight years race in honor by allowing democratic ethos and tenets to prevail during the presidential primary so that Nigerians would be rewarded with the president they crave and yearn for comes 2023. This is the only way his own legacy would be protected and preserved after he might have vacated.       

Kola AMZAT(FCA,FCIB,ACS,CTP)

LAGOS BASED FINANCIAL CONSULTANT,

09077509348

Kola AMZAT (FCA, FCIB,  CTP, MBA)                                                                                                                  Lagos Based Financial Consultant

09077509348.