THE All Progressives Congress has named Lagos
as the venue of its December 10 presidential
primary.
Eight thousand delegates are expected to
participate in the convention, scheduled to hold
at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere,
Lagos.
The APC four other presidential aspirants –
former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Kano
State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, Imo State
Governor Rochas Okorocha, and Leadership
Newspaper publisher, Sam Nda-Isaiah – had
jointly asked for a venue outside Lagos, said to
be favoured by Buhari and a former Lagos State
governor, Bola Tinubu.
Atiku and the three others wrote the APC
National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, on Nov
27, “advising” the party chairman to retain Abuja
as the convention venue.
But the APC convention committee, led by ex-
Ekiti State governor, Kayode Fayemi, ignored the
subtle protest by the presidential aspirants and
on Wednesday announced the choice of Lagos
as replacement for Abuja, the Federal Capital
Territory.
Fayemi explained that his committee had been
able to convince all the aspirants on the
suitability of the new venue while noting their
concerns about logistics.
The four aspirants had, in the protest letter,
argued that Abuja was more centrally located
and easily accessible to delegates from all over
the nation.
In the letter, the aspirants observed that the
proposed choice of Lagos as possible venue for
the presidential primaries was not convenient.
The letter partly read, “We the under-listed
presidential aspirants of the APC, having noted
the clash of date of 10th December for APC and
PDP National Convention/Presidential Primaries
wish to advise as follows:
“That Abuja as centre remains the best,
convenient and most accepted to all.
“That, our party has paid for the Eagle Square for
the 7th and 8th December for presidential
primaries, which now is dated for Federal House/
Senate primaries.
“That, the presidential primaries be retained for
the 7th and 8th as scheduled, while the National
Assembly primaries since we have nothing to
harvest from PDP president primaries as their
candidate is already known.
“That, the proposed choice of Lagos as a
possible venue for the presidential primaries is
not convenient for all.
“We therefore advise that our party reverts to
Abuja as the venue.”
It was learnt that as of Tuesday, it was agreed
in principle that Benin, the Edo State capital, be
chosen since the national leadership of the party
had argued strongly in favour of retaining the
December 10 date.
A source in the party, who pleaded anonymity
because he was not permitted to comment on
the issue, said, “The aspirants are afraid that
Lagos, being the home of a strong supporter of
Buhari will give the person he is supporting an
edge over others because the issue of
accommodation and other logistics will be easier
for them (Buhari’s camp) to address.”
But another source said the fears being
expressed by aspirants about the venue were not
unfounded.
The source said, “There is news making the
rounds that a certain leader of the party has
booked most of the decent hotels in Lagos.
“The leader in question is working assiduously in
favour of a particular aspirant, as such, having
delegates within his reach at the last minute
could alter earlier projections.”
According to the source, Benin was earlier
considered because “the heartbeat of the nation”
would serve the dual role of marketing the party
as a truly national party and not a
metamorphosis of the defunct Action Congress
of Nigeria as well as selling the party to the
electorate in the South-South.
It was, however, gathered that the party
leadership picked Lagos because Benin lacked
the facilities and security capability to take care
of the huge crowd expected at the convention.
Fayemi told journalists at a press conference in
Abuja on Wednesday that there was nothing
sinister about the choice of Lagos.
According to him, the party, especially his
committee, is more concerned about the process
than the product.
He said, “For us, it is not who emerges at the
end of the day. They are all competent. They all
have agenda and they all will implement the
manifesto of our party. It is how we get there.
“We have not taken any decision without the
input of all the presidential aspirants, l can
assure you of that. We did not arrive at Lagos
accidentally; we arrived at Lagos with the full
input of all our presidential aspirants.
“Those concerns were raised about the distance,
for example for somebody coming from Yobe as
delegate or Maiduguru, those are practical issues
and we would have been surprised if the
aspirants didn’t raise such issues.”
In another interview in Abuja, Fayemi said that
the initial plan of the committee and the party
was to hold the event in Abuja but that the APC
changed gear because the ruling PDP was also
holding its convention almost at the same time.
He said it would be difficult for the two
dominant parties to be holding events of such
magnitude at the same time.
Besides, he also said that the Eagle Square,
which he said his party would have used, was
also going to be used by the PDP.
The PDP convention has been fixed for December
10 and 11 in Abuja.
Fayemi said, “We originally wanted to hold our
national convention in Abuja because naturally
Abuja is the place to hold an event of this
nature. This is where we have always held
national party conventions.
“However we had identified a date to hold the
party convention in Abuja and due to some
exigencies we had to change that date. It also
happened that the new date we chose now
coincides with the date the PDP also chose for
their national convention.
“Understandably the Eagle Square that we
wanted to book had been booked for the day.”
“We then looked at other options. We looked at
Port Harcourt, Benin and Lagos.We felt that all
of the factors that are considered to be critical
to success of our convention only Lagos has
successfully met those criteria.
“These are comprehensive security measures, full
coverage by the media, capacity to
accommodate 10, 000 delegates.
“There is no other city in Nigeria that can do that
outside Abuja and Lagos. Benin that was also a
very high ranking choice also did not succeed on
that point because the accommodation in Benin
would not meet up with the need of our
delegates, aspirants and other leaders that will
be present.”
On the alleged fears of other presidential
aspirants that Lagos could be used to crown
unnamed aspirants, he said the allegation was
not true.
The former governor said, “Everything we are
doing is in the open and is transparent. In fact,
all aspirants have representatives in the
committee and they were part of all the
discussions that transpired before we arrived at
Lagos.
“So if anyone wants to suggest that this is going
to be coronation to anyone, that is news to me.
We won’t use Lagos to coronate anyone. I have
the greatest respect for every aspirant but I am
not the type that can be manipulated or
intimidated into working to a pre-conceived
answer, not even by the chairman of the party or
any leader of the party.”
Meanwhile, the Atiku campaign office on
Wednesday welcomed the decision to hold the
APC convention in Lagos.
In a statement signed by his media office, the
former Vice-President said he wholeheartedly
welcomed the choice of Lagos as the venue for
the presidential primaries of the APC.
It described Lagos as the former Vice-
President’s home, considering the fact that he
spent several years of his public service career
there.
The statement described Atiku as “a Lagosian.”
It read, “I’m not any less Lagosian than anyone
is. I have a house in Lagos and a part of my
large family lives in Lagos. I visit Lagos
regularly, so I’m not a stranger to the
cosmopolitan city and what it represents as the
melting pot of Nigeria.”
The former Vice-President also congratulated the
Government and the people of Lagos State on
this unique opportunity offered them by the APC
to excel and showcase “the spirit of Lagos.”
Also, the Lagos APC welcomed the decision of
the party’s National Convention Committee to
hold the party’s presidential primary in the state.
The Publicity Secretary of the party in the state,
Mr. Joe Igbokwe, said Lagos was the best
location for the exercise given the state’s
strategic position.
He said, “It is a welcome development. Lagos
has the funds, the logistics and all the necessary
things to conduct the exercise.
Delegates are
also assured of adequate security as the
violence which marred the conduct of the House
of Assembly primary in Yaba can never recur.
“We also promise a level-playing field during the
exercise as it will be transparent.”
No comments: