Southwest Agenda: Akande, Osoba to meet Tinubu, Osibanjo, other presidential aspirants
… As Akeredolu insists power must shift to south
The four presidential aspirants from the South-West under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) will meet with leaders of the party in the zone this Friday.
Nigerian NewsDirect reports that the meeting, convened by the pioneer chairman of the APC, Chief Bisi Akande and the former governor of Ogun State, Chief Segun Osoba, is slated to hold at the Lagos House in Marina.
The coming is sequel to the concerns raised by stakeholders in the South-West over the growing number of politicians from the region declaring their intention to vie for the nation’s highest political office next year.
The presidential aspirants include Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; APC National Chairman, Bola Ahmed Tinubu; former Ogun State governor, Ibikunle Amosun and the Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi.
Indications have emerged that the highly-respected Bisi Akande would ensure the list of the presidential aspirants was pruned down in the interest of the South-West.
According to him, “The South-West is the biggest investor in APC. The political marriage between the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and Congress for Progressive Changes (CPC) gave birth to APC. ACN came to the merger with 6 governors against 1 governor from CPC. The South-West sacrificed most for APC. It is only natural that the region should produce the successor to President Muhammadu Buhari from North- West.
“The leaders are worried that if the South-West does not get its acts together, we may lose the APC presidential ticket to other regions. It is even more worrisome that the 4 aspirants from APC are from the same political family.
“The South-East is making a legitimate claim to the Presidency. Even the South- South that just had the presidency with President Goodluck Jonathan wants a shot at it again with aspirants coming out of the region.”
Meanwhile, Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, in a call to the leadership of the All Progressive Congress (APC), insisted that the presidential position must be zones to the south.
Akeredolu made the call in a statement titled, “Our Party, APC, Must Tread The Path Of Equity”, which was made available to newsmen on Tuesday in Akure.
According to him, the party cannot afford any internal bickering which could cause distrust and militate against cohesion, harmony and the zeal to achieve set objectives.
Noting that the current democratic dispensation is anchored on the unwritten convention driven by a principle of Equity, the governor said the APC must not do anything capable of tilting the delicate balance against the established arrangement which guarantees peace and promotes trust.
In his words: “All lovers of peace and freedom must do everything to eschew tendencies which may predispose them to taking decisions which promote distrust and lead to a crisis, the end of which nobody may be able to predict.
“The leadership of the party ensured that the principle of rotational representation guided its decision at the just-concluded convention,” he added.
He further mentioned that since the party chairmanship position had gone to the North and all other offices have been filled, leaders of the party must make a categorical statement, devoid of equivocation, on the pattern of succession.
