The All Progressives Congress (APC) is set to adopt former Head of State, Gen. Mohammed Buhari (rtd) as its consensus candidate for the 2015 presidential election.
This came as the party’s national leader and former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in the course of the party’s October 17, 2014 National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, openly declared his support for Buhari
Tinubu’s open support for Buhari was hinged on the popularity of Buhari as supported by different opinion polls conducted recently in the country, reports Vanguard, citing a source at the national secretariat of the APC.
The source added that Tinubu, who was excited by Buhari’s 12 million votes in 2011 presidential elections has decided to bankroll the campaign of Buhari – who some said took a loan for his nomination form – to any length it will take to win the votes of the majority of Nigerians.
The Vanguard source noted that APC believes that only Buhari can beat President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 elections.
“Tinubu said it openly that day that he would support Buhari. He told everyone who was present,” the source added.
While Buhari has been favoured in many quarters, the source told Vanguard that the party may find a way to bypass Presidential primaries, as Atiku Abubakar has a structure to win delegate election.
A mini convention will therefore hold next Wednesday to enable the party amend some portions of its constitution.
“Principally, we proposed certain amendments to the constitution of the party that will allow the party to function much more efficiently and to that extent we will hold what I call an extraordinary convention of the party on the 29th of this month in Abuja to submit the proposals for the amendment to the national convention of the party,” Lai Mohammed, APC’s national publicity secretary had told Journalists at the end of the NEC meeting on October 17.
