Presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, has revealed the reason President, Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) was nondiscriminatory and refrained from imposing candidate on the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He claimed that the primary election that produced the former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, as the party’s flagbearer was a litmus test for the President, hence his neutrality.
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The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, made these known via a statement titled, ‘Knock, Knock! Who’s there?’.
Adesina stated that while one of Buhari’s predecessors in office allegedly imposed his successor, the President was nondiscriminatory and allowed due process to take order of the day.
According to Adesina, even though Buhari had a favourite candidate, he walked the talk of his promise that he would leave a legacy of a free, fair and credible process for the country.
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His statement read:
Let me first talk of the last one week that led to the primary election of the APC. In an interview he granted in January, this year, President Muhammadu Buhari had indicated that he had a favorite candidate. Would he name the person? He balked, saying he would be exposing the individual to too much risks, including possible elimination.
It was human to have a favorite in such situation, and the President did no wrong.
The statement further reads:
But would you unduly favor the person? Would you throw your weight around, ride roughshod over the others, and impose your favored one on your political party and the nation? We have seen it before. Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, did it with Umaru Yar’Adua. He did same, though to a lesser extent with Dr Goodluck Jonathan. Can Buhari do it and remain a democrat, fair, impartial? Knock, Knock! Who’s There?
That was the matter of interest in the week before the primary election. There were at least 23 aspirants. Who would the President give the nod? Could he remain neutral, non-aligned? At least, he had confessed he had someone in mind. Would he remain even-handed, detached, non-discriminatory?
Meanwhile, there were at least four consultative meetings, towards getting an acceptable candidate for the party. One was with the APC Governors, called Progressive Governors Forum.
The other was with the presidential aspirants themselves, then with the National Advisory Council (formerly called Board of Trustees), and finally with the Northern Progressive Governors Forum.
