Ahmad Lawan as consensus: Buhari clears the air, says ‘there shall be no imposition’

President Muhammadu Buhari has reacted to the announcement by the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu adopting the Senate President as the 2023 consensus presidential candidate.

Buhari cleared the air, saying that he has no preferred candidate which he has earlier told the 14 Northern Governors on the APC platform at a meeting.

In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu on Monday, the President insisted that he has “no preferred candidate,” and has “anointed no one,” and is determined to ensure that “there shall be no imposition of any candidate on the party.”

Speaking at a meeting with the Governors at the State House, Abuja, President Buhari said the party is important and its members must be respected, and made to feel they are important.

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.