And Now, 13 Presidential Aspirants Cleared, 5 are Frontrunners, Tinubu Falters

The seven-man All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Screening Committee headed by the former national chairman of the party, Chief John Oyegun yesterday announced that it had cleared 13 of the 23 aspirants screened, while recommending10 for disqualification ahead of the party’s Presidential primary election scheduled for next week.

Of the 13 aspirants cleared, five of them are regarded as the frontrunners, with Vice President Yemi Osibanjo leading. The next four in order of their strengths are Senate President, Ahmad Lawan; Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi; former Governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu and the former Minister of Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio.

Oyegun revealed the recommendation to disqualify 10 presidential aspirants when he led other members of the committee to submit their screening report to the Abdulahi Adamu-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.

Oyegun said: “My first comment is that we are indeed a very lucky party. We had a lot of others, prominent Nigerians both within the country and outside that had applied, but for whatever reasons, could not proceed with their applications. The point I want to make is the quality of the people that want to govern this country.

The committee’s chairman said there were two aspects or criteria for the screening, which included the constitutional qualification to aspire to be a president, saying every single aspirant that presented himself qualified in that regard.

“And so the ability to lead, background, experience, understanding of the Nigerian situation, ideas as to how issues; difficulties, problems and the rest can be addressed and how the country can be moved forward became principal considerations.

“Who are you? What have you achieved? What is the understanding of your nation? And what do you think you can contribute to move the nation forward? It was on the basis of that that we made our final short list. I don’t want to read the names, I think we leave that to you. But we have a short list, we brought the number severely down to 13.

“We could have cut it a little shorter, but we wanted, deliberately, the younger element to surface; for them to be seen, for them to be noticed. It’s for the party to decide the preferred candidate. It is also an opportunity to showcase the kind of people that exist within the party.”

On the issue of consensus, Oyegun revealed that 98 to 99% of the aspirants agreed that the party is supreme and that whatever the party finally decides with proper consultation, they would accept.

Also, on the issue of zoning, Oyegun urged the party to address it, which he said was already creating division between the North and the South in the ruling party.

He continued: “The flag does not belong to me, it doesn’t belong to any of us, it is the flag of the party, a corporate body called the APC and it is my hope that that spirit will be obeyed. Various court decisions have affirmed this position, it is the party that is being represented and not individuals.

“So, whoever emerges to be the flag bearer of the party is only the symbol of the party and I hope that the spirit which we approach the convention with will guide everyone of the contestants, guide us and leaders of the party. We will do the best we can in the circumstances the party finds itself.”

Jonathan Not Screened By APC

The screening committee of the APC also denied screening former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Oyegun confirmed this when he submitted his report to the APC National Chairman.

Odigie-Oyegun told journalists that contrary to news making the rounds, the former president was not at Transcorp Hilton for the exercise.

ThisDay