LIVE: APC Holds Convention To Elect Presidential Flagbearer For 2023 Polls

This is a live update page for the APC special convention meant to elect the party’s presidential flagbearer for the 2023 general elections. Kindly refresh your browser to get the latest developments.

All is now set for the All Progressives Congress (APC) special convention in Abuja, the nation’s capital to elect the party’s presidential flagbearer for the 2023 general elections.

The event, which is holding at the Eagle Square will see  2,340 delegates queuing to choose the APC presidential candidate.

In the lead up to the election, several groups had bought the nomination and expression of interest forms for high-profile individuals including former President Goodluck Jonathan; the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele; and the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina.

But twenty-three aspirants are expected to contest for the ticket, days after they were cleared for the exercise after some of them backed out of the race.

The special convention, which is billed to run till Wednesday, has been marred by intrigues over the zoning of the presidential ticket and consensus candidacy.

President Muhammadu Buhari has had several meetings with leaders of the party as the APC pushes for a consensus candidate.

While the northern governors are canvassing for the flagbearer to come from the southern part of the country, a faction of the party is pushing for the ticket to be given to the northern region.

On Monday, reports emerged that Senate President Ahmad Lawan had been picked as the consensus candidate of the party. But minutes after, the presidency said President Buhari does not have an anointed candidate, adding that the Nigerian leader is committed to a democratic process.

“Have a clear mind as I have. God gave us the chance; we have no reason to complain,” Buhari said according to a statement from his media aide Garba Shehu.

“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.”

Last week, a chieftain of the party, Bola Tinubu, had argued that he is the best man for the job having supported President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2015 election.

But the presidency said Buhari was not helped to power by a single person, insisting that it was the combined efforts of members of the party.

“There are many people who played parts large and small in his historic election in 2015, making history as the first opposition candidate to defeat a sitting president with power changing hands peacefully at the ballot box,” Shehu added.