APC NWC Supports Power Shift To South, Says Argungu Amid Consensus Candidate Controversy

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is in support of the emergence of a southerner as the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections.

APC National Organising Secretary, Suleiman Argungu, disclosed this on Monday while addressing reporters at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

While briefing reporters in the company of some members of the NWC, he explained that the committee took the decision following a meeting of its members.

According to Argungu, the NWC stands with the position of the northern governors elected on the APC platform for power to shift to the southern part of the country when President Muhammadu Buhari completes his eight-year two terms billed to lapse in May 2023.

He made the remarks amid reports by several media outfits that a presidential hopeful and Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, had emerged as the party’s consensus candidate for the forthcoming poll.

The emergence of the Senate President as the APC consensus presidential candidate was alleged to have been announced by the party’s national chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, although Channels Television could not verify this claim at the time it was reported.

Senator Adamu, who apparently attended the meeting of the NWC, left the APC secretariat without confirming to reporters if he truly announced Lawan as the party’s consensus presidential candidate or not.

Channels Television had reported that 13 northern APC governors met with President Buhari at his office inside the Presidential Villa in Abuja in what could be described as last-minute consultation ahead of the party’s primary.

Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum and Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, said the governors have insisted that they would back a southerner to emerge as the presidential candidate of the APC.

He clarified that the leaked memo that went viral last Saturday was the true position of the northern governors, and they came to officially consult with the President.

According to the governor, President Buhari has not anointed any of the 23 aspirants expected to participate in the party’s primary as the flagbearer of the APC.

Rather, he explained that the President asked the governors to have a meeting with the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to resolve the issue of a consensus candidate through democratic means.