National Chairman, All Progressives Congress, Chief John Oyegun

As governors on the platform of the All Progressives Congress converge on Ilorin, the Kwara State capital today (Wednesday), leading aspirants for the party’s presidential ticket have sent lobbyists to advance the chances of their candidates.

A reliable party source, who sought anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media for fear of retribution, confided in our correspondent in Abuja on Tuesday.

According to the source, governors who are sympathetic to leading aspirants will seek to push forward arguments which they feel will help the cause of their preferred aspirants.

He explained that the party was now more focused on giving the candidate with the best chance to wrestle power from the PDP. This, he said, would guide the deliberations.

The source said, “I can tell you that our governors are fully aware of what is at stake. Yes, they will discuss the issue of the proposed constitutional amendment and the mode of our primaries but the issue of consensus candidate will surely come up.

“For example, the South-West governors who have already done their ground work are going to work on their colleagues on the need to settle for the consensus option. They are used to this system of picking candidates and have already met and arrived at a position to mobilise support for one of the aspirants.”

The source also said apart from adjustments to Article 20 (iii), which is to address the issue of the lacuna between the party constitution and the Electoral Act, the proposed amendment to the constitution was also targeted at opening up the political space within the party.

He said, “The constitution will be amended to remove the issue of waiver. You know in the other party, (the Peoples Democratic Party), they have a provision that you can only stand for elective office after two years of membership or if you are given a waiver.

“The proposal we have now is to remove this altogether so that even if you join the party today, you will enjoy the same rights and privileges like all other members.”

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