After the much-awaited national convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the stage is now set for the party’s search for a sellable presidential standard bearer, who will square up to Presi¬dent Goodluck Jonathan, whose re-election bid is expected to be announced any moment.Checks by Daily Sun revealed that with the purported zoning of the APC presidential slot to the North-West geopolitical zone, both General Mohammadu Buhari, former head of state and Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, were getting set to fight for the party’s presi¬dential ticket.
It was gathered that in preparation for his presiden¬tial bid, Kwankawso had made some deft political moves to position himself for the exalted position.
A chieftain of the APC, who pleaded anonymity, told Daily Sun that since the party appeared to prefer a younger candidate, the Kwankwaso camp was doing everything to prepare for the contest.
According to him, “the party is toying with the idea of backing a younger aspi¬rant, with a view to ensuring generational shift in the pow¬er equation.”
He disclosed that in prepa¬ration for the presidential bid, Kwankwaso recently conducted local government elections to prove his popu¬larity and wide acceptability of APC in Kano State.
“Kwankwaso has succeed¬ed in making a statement with the council election that the former state governor, Mal¬lam Ibrahim Shekerau, has no electoral value in the state since he lost even his ward during the council poll,” the source stated.
Checks revealed that the Kwankwaso camp had been reaching out to stakeholders in the APC and subtly drop-ping hints of the governor’s interest in the number one political office in the country.
Sources stated that the Kano State governor was get¬ting support from fellow gov¬ernors in the party, who want¬ed to determine who became the presidential candidate of the party.
Daily Sun gathered that the APC governors had ex¬pressed their preference for one of them to get the presi-dential ticket of the party to square up to Jonathan next year.
The governors had their way in the choice of who be¬came the national chairman of the party, as their candi-date, Chief John Oyegun, emerged, against the choice of Chief Tom Ikime, backed by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
When contacted on phone for his comments, the Nation¬al Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said it was too early to decide who would be the presidential candidate of the APC, saying: “The job before the party now is to consolidate its roadmap and strengthen its structure for the electoral task ahead.”
According to him, the party’s convention had suc¬ceeded in erasing the wrong notion that APC was a Mus¬lim party or that there was no internal democracy in the party.
“My brother, one hour can be too long in politics, let alone one day, one week, one month, six months. Anything can happen between now and November,” Mohammed said.