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I have no preferred candidate – Buhari, denies anointing Lawan
You were elected as I was. Have a clear mind as I have. God gave us the chance; we have no reason to complain. We must be ready to take pain as we take the joy. Allow the delegates to decide. The Party must participate, nobody will appoint anybody
President Muhammadu Buhari has denied information attributed to the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that he has anointed Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, as the APC consensus presidential candidate.
Buhari said he has no preferred candidate and therefore has not anointed any of the 13 aspirants cleared by the APC Presidential Screening Committee (PSC), chaired by the party’s former national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.
In a statement issued Monday by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, the President said the APC delegates will decide who the party’s candidate will be.
Buhari spoke at a meeting with the APC northern state governors at the State House, Abuja. He told his guests that the party was important and its members must be respected, and made to feel they were important.
He told the 14 APC northern governors that he has “anointed no one,” and was determined to ensure that “there shall be no imposition of any candidate on the party”.
READ: Northern APC Governors reject Ahmad Lawan as consensus presidential candidate
The President said he had a clear mind about what he was doing and asked the APC governors to feel the same way: “You were elected as I was. Have a clear mind as I have. God gave us the chance; we have no reason to complain. We must be ready to take pain as we take the joy. Allow the delegates to decide. The Party must participate, nobody will appoint anybody.”
Earlier in their addresses, the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Governor Simon Bako Lalong and Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu of the Progressive Governors Forum, said they had come to affirm the position of the northern governors that the party’s candidate in the presidential election shall come from the southern part of the country.
They apologised to the President for the leakage of their signed memorandum which was not in support of any particular candidate and gave assurances to the President on their readiness to accept his leadership on the matter.
