A former presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress in the 2019 election, Charles Udeogaranya, on Friday, berated the National working committee and governors elected on the platform of the APC for publicly endorsing President Bola Tinubu.
Udeogaranya argued that failure to subject the President to a primary election in the same manner he clinched the party ticket in 2023, will inevitably rob other prospective aspirants of the opportunity to bring about a better Nigeria anchored on creativity, nationalism and prosperity.
He voiced his concern in a statement issued to newsmen in Abuja,
His reaction comes barely 24 hours after the 22 APC governors and the leadership of the party unanimously backed Tinubu as the party’s sole presidential candidate for the 2027 poll.
The endorsement was announced on Thursday by the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, at the APC National Summit held at the State House Banquet Hall in Abuja.
Uzodimma moved the motion for Tinubu’s adoption as the APC’s sole candidate, which was seconded by the PGF Vice Chairman, Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State.
Reacting, Udeogaranya insisted that there should be ‘no room for automatic tickets’ on the APC platform.
“There is no room for consensus in continuous hunger, chronic poverty, economic quagmire, insecurity, nepotism, cluelessness and in the leadership of Nigeria.
“Consensus is far from it. While I deeply and respectfully appreciate my fellow APC members on their Abuja summit, may I also respectfully inform you that this democracy was birthed by Thomas Jefferson in his declaration of the United States Independence in 1776.
“His declaration, which was entrenched by Abraham Lincoln at his speech in Gettysburg 1863 and globally expressed by Martin Luther King Jnr in his Washington 1963 speech, will not fail in Nigeria, come 2027,” he fumed.
Reacting, the Deputy National Organising Committee, Nze Chidi Duru, argued that the ruling party did the right thing.
“The President has a right of first refusal. If he, however, declines the offer to run for a second term in office, we can then be talking about a primary,” he stated.
