At the least count, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has netted a whopping sum of N2,500,000,000 (Two billion, five hundred million) in one week after 25 presidential.aspirants purchased expression of interest and nomination forms for N100 million each.
Notwithstanding, the cost of nomination form for all elective offices of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is outrageous, if not one of the most costly in the world, yet, undeterred by presidential aspirants who have been rushing to buy the forms.
The jostle for form puts to question, if zoning would still be sacrosanct as those who have purchased nomination form so far spread across the five geopolitical zones of the country. As at Saturday 7th May, 25 presidential aspirants have purchased nomination forms with many others waiting to pick theirs before Tuesday 10th May deadline.
With the number of presidential aspirants, the ruling APC is a party with overcrowded presidential aspirants in the democratic history of Nigeria as the party faces 2023 general election. The party which is barely 8 years was a product of alliance to stop the reign of the Peoples Democratic primary (PDP). President Muhammadu Buhari who founded the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) was the first person to have won a presidential ticket twice and the subsequent elections that made him a pioneer president on the APC platform.
With the challenge of numerous aspirants eyeing presidency in 2023, CAPITAL POST recalled that the former governor of Lagos State and National leader of APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was among those who midwifed the alliance prior to 2015 with the belief that the presidential ticket to succeed President Buhari would exclusively be reserved for him until the table is turning round, round and round. It was at the backdrop that his former Attorney General and now Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo’s interest and declaration was a sort of bombshell on his camp.
It is recalled that immediately Osinbajo declared interest on a national television broadcast, Bola Tinubu went into a panic meeting with APC governors at Kebbi governor’s lodge, Asokoro to canvass support of governors. Be that as it may, the political equation was changing by the day with the surging popularity of the rival Vice President, Prof
Osinbajo.
Now that the quest for presidency has become an all comers affair, including the misfits, one could not arrive at saying that Osinbajo will be the only major threat to Tinubu’s presidential ambition, there are speculations within the political circle that Bola Tinubu has sponsored some aspirants from the South West zone and particularly South West State where his strong rival comes from, in order to divide delegates during the primaries.
A Tinubu loyalist who is a ranking Senator from Ondo was speculated to have picked a nomination form with a caveat that when the dye is cast, he will step down for Tinubu.
A source close to Tinubu revealed that his campaign strategy is being reviewed daily depending on the developments. Moreso, he has widened his sponsorship of aspirants from the northern axis, South East and South as a survival strategy, while insisting that all aspirants should go to primaries for a popularity test.
