The South-West Agenda for Asiwaju 2023 (SWAGA’23) on Sunday said the idea of a consensus presidential candidate for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is unacceptable as it will cause rancour and division in the party.
The party, at its national convention yesterday produced its new set of National Working Committee (NWC) members through a consensus arrangement.
However, when asked if the party’s presidential candidate for the 2023 general elections will emerge through the same process, Hon. Bosun Oladele, SWAGA’s National Secretary said the issue of consensus will not be acceptable as all intending aspirants should be made to slug it out for the ticket.
According to him, nobody should try to get the APC presidential ticket through the backdoor.
“There is nothing like consensus presidential candidate. That will be a short cut which they know cannot be possible through a primary if all the aspirants file out on the field. Nobody should think of getting the ticket through the back door.
“Don’t forget, Asiwaju Tinubu deliberately said that he has the capacity. So, I believe that is the number one requirement for anybody that wants to contest the election”.
“Whoever is contesting, let them go to the field and show their capacity. After all, if not for contested primaries, would it have been possible for Buhari to emerge in 2015? I believe if he had emerged by consensus then, there would have been serious protest and division in the party”.
“Everybody saw that the process that produced him was free and fair, devoid of any imposition. So, that is what we should be looking at, not consensus arrangement” he said.
