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Abdullahi Adamu, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said though he did not have evidence that presidential aspirants are sharing money to delegates, anyone doing that cannot be the right candidate of the party.
Adamu, who spoke with some journalists in Hausa on Wednesday, maintained that any aspirant sharing money to delegates does not mean well for the country, saying the delegates are selling their conscience which is not proper.
On the issue of a consensus candidate emerging at the Sunday and Monday special convention for presidential primary election, the APC Chairman said: “You can’t stop our party stalwarts from contesting election or aspiring for the presidency.
“It is their rights and we are happy for them. There is nothing wrong for anybody aspiring for the exalted seat of the presidency. It is God that decides who gets what. Once God makes up His mind and says this is who He wants that is what we are praying for.
“We have 28 aspirants for the presidential ticket and everybody knows that all of them cannot get the ticket. If it’s God’s wish they all can even be president of the country one after the other. Ours is to ensure justice in the choice of who emerges candidate of the party. That does not mean we are perfect. But we pray we do the right thing.”
While dismissing insinuations that there is a plan for a consensus presidential candidate as it was done for his emergence as APC National Chairman, Adamu said: “There is no truth in what you said.
“Reason is, the chairmanship seat is not the same as that of the tussle for the presidency of the country. You can’t even compare the two of them. That question does not arise.
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“However, the party has laid down its rules and regulations for the aspirants. We would scrutinise all of them based on our guidelines to be sure we pick the right.”
He said in spite of all the insults, APC has advantages far ahead of other political parties, the reason there is a large number of presidential aspirants.
Adamu said: “Today the APC is the biggest party in Nigeria. It’s natural that the APC will attract Nigerians than any other party. Any right thinking politician would naturally gravitate towards the APC. Of course, we have our problems but today we are the cynosure of all Nigerians and I am hopeful God willing, we will retain power at the general election.”
On zoning of the 2023 presidency, the former Nasarawa state governor said:
“We have not produced our candidate for the presidency yet. We have to screen the aspirants to know the way forward. We have aspirants from across the country in the race. We will take the decision when we get there.”
