By Akombo Aondona, Abuja
There were strong indications on Tuesday 19th April, 2022 that the All Progressives Congress (APC) would not allow an open contest for the party’s presidential ticket at its forthcoming primaries and would instead recourse to the consensus option to pick its standard bearer in the 2023 Presidential Election.
This would put paid – at list on the APC’s platform – to the ambitions of such APC bigwig as Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and others whom many political analyst and even media reports have said do not enjoy the blessings of APC’s power brokers, particularly the support of President Muhammadu Buhari and some top-rank members of the party’s new National Working Committee (NWC).
The latest hint at the fate of Tinubu and other out-of-favour presidential aspirants came from National Women’s Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mrs. Betta Edu, who has insisted that only President Muhammadu Buhari, the National Chairman of APC, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu and other party leaders can choose the APC presidential candidate in the 2023 general election.
Mrs. Edu stated this while receiving the women mobilization wing of the Yahaya Bello Hope’23 Campaign Organization at the APC National Secretariat, Abuja on Tuesday, 19th April, 2022.
She also said what the women needed to do first was to go all out and mobilize their peers for voter registration if they really wanted Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State as APC presidential candidate.
Edu said: “Be reminded that our party will come together under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari and of course the national chairman and others in the leadership structure of our party to decide who will be the candidate of our great party.
“If indeed you are supporting Governor Yahaya Bello, you must go out now and begin the door-to-door mobilization for registration. Go door to door and begin the campaign for voters registration”.
” The APC women wing will be coming out state by state to mobilize women to go and register. If they don’t have their voters’ cards, our work is useless even if they give any of our aspirants the tickets, it will not amount to victory”.
Director, Women Mobilization, Hope’23, Yahaya Bello Campaign Organization, Zara Gift Onyinye, congratulated Mrs. Edu on her new office and also solicited the support of her office for the presidential ambition of Governor Bello, saying his chances are “huge”.
Onyinye said: “We are here to congratulate our women leader for her new office and also solicit her support for our candidate who is also an APC aspirant in the upcoming presidential race. Of course, his chances are huge.
“A candidate who supports women will definitely stand the better chance of winning the election because women form the highest number of voters across Nigeria and that person is Governor Yahaya Bello and all women have shown that he had supported them”.
Also, Secretary to the Kogi State Government, Mrs. Folashade Ayoade, said Governor Bello had given women a place of honour in his administration from 2016 to date.
Mrs. Ayoade stated: “I need to just let you know of the fact that Governor Yahaya Bello loves to give women a chance in public service. He has given us a place of honour. In Kogi State as we stand from 2016 to date, I have been the SSG as a woman. Not just that, the head of service had been a woman and all the 21 local governments’ vice chairpersons are women”.
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