Why APC Governors should not be worried about Buhari imposing his presidential candidate on them

Ahead of the presidential primaries of the ruling All Progressive Congress APC, some aggrieved Governors of the party have vowed to resist any attempt of President Muhammadu Buhari to impose his anointed choice as the consensus presidential candidate of the party. The Governors it was learnt were not happy about the decision of the President to impose former Nasarawa state Governor, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, on them as the consensus candidate for the national chairman position. Recall that Adamu was elected the new national chairman of the party at the APC national convention on the 26th of March.

According to Sahara reporters, the aggrieved APC Governors who promised to resist any attempt to have a similar scenario of what played out in the selection of their national chairman, vowed to ensure all presidential aspirants including the president’s preferred candidate face the presidential primaries rather than being selected through consensus.

Why APC Governors should not worry about the President imposing his candidate on them.

The president had said he is not interested in who succeeds him. He said even if he has interest in who succeeds him, he will not name the person for safety reasons. Though some political analyst took the first part of this statement with a pinch of salt considering the fact that every retiring president will be interested in who succeeds him, the president may however be stating his honest opinion on the issue of his successor in my opinion.

This is because there are different power blocs that collapsed to form APC in 2013. Recall that the Action Congress of Nigeria ACN, the Congress for Progressive Change CPC, the All Nigeria Peoples Party ANPP and two other political parties fused into APC.

Buhari is member of the CPC bloc in the party. The CPC bloc has already produced him as presidential candidate of the party to run for two terms. It is highly expected that a different power blocs apart from the CPC will produce the next presidential candidate. This may be the reason why the President said he is not interested in who succeeds him.