It is a defining moment for the All Progressives Congress (APC). The ruling party is set to take a decision today. The step it is about to take has implications for its future.
After zoning, the question is: since the party want to retain power beyond 2023, who is the presidential aspirant who can generate the enthusiasm? Put succinctly, who is the contender who can face the opposition candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar? Who is the contender who can win the election for APC?
To analysts, It may be a make or mar primary. Delegates are storming Eagle Square in Abuja, the venue of the historic exercise, in that mood of anxiety and great expectation.
Remarkably, party leaders have resolved to embrace reality. Obviously, they are looking beyond the shadow poll. The electorate are also watching. Even, PDP leaders are maintaining a keen interest in the affairs of the ruling party.
According to observers, it is risky to make a slight mistake. Therefore, only a right step in the right direction can guarantee the survival of the party.
The party leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, is sensitive to the prospects and dangers ahead. For APC to retain power in next year’s election, he has deployed his wisdom by guiding the party to dismantle certain impediments and threat to unity and cohesion.
The party has rekindled the confidence of the South by opting for zoning. Unlike the pompous Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which violated its own rotational principle and dared the consequences, APC has decided to give the two bloc regions-North and South-a sense of belonging. The picture of master-servant relationship may fizzled out.
While the Northern PDP is monopolising the two slots of national chairman and presidential flagbearer, Northern APC is more democratic, practical and conciliatory.
It is the first time zoning will be pronounced publicly by any major political party. In the years ahead, the example of openess, frankness, sincerity and sacrifice displayed by President Buhari, Northern APC governors and other leaders will serve as a veritable political precedent.
Historians will allude to it as the building block of national unity, a factor in geo-political balance and a great pillar of stability.
What APC should do today is to strive to build on the feat that has forged cohesion, togetherness and brotherhood. Aspirants from the South should think deeply, resolve to collaborate and trade in political realities.
While addressing the Progressive Governors’ Forum last week, President Buhari highlighted the qualities of the candidate that APC should pick at the presidential convention. He emphasised that the candidate should be someone who would give the Nigerian masses a sense of victory and confidence, even before the elections.
President Buhari has demonstrated a commitment to truth. He is realistic and objective.
The ball is now in the court of Southern aspirants. Instructively, the president, who wants a rancour-free primary, has also advised the aspirants to brainstorm and choose among themselves a towering aspirant who seems to have a comparative edge, based on the criteria of relative popularity, support base, formidable structure, wider networks, bridge building, experience, competence, intellectual arsenal, long years of effective political mobilisation and national acceptability.
All the aspirants appear to be qualified for the ticket, based on constitutional provisions, education, party membership and commitment to the platform. After the emergence of the standard bearer, team work will still be required. Each aspirant would still be critical to winning at the poll.
What the president has urged them to do is introspection, deep self-assessment, and to embrace the reality of the fact that the presidential race of 2023 will not be a tea party, a child’s play and a amateurish contest. It will be a big battle between the APC, which has ruled for eight years, and the PDP, which, having misused the opportunity of 16 years and left in the cold for eight years, is making a spirited attempt to bounce back.
Four aspirants are from the race in the Southwest-Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Senator Ibikune Amosu and Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi. In the East, there is elderstatesman Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu. In the Southsouth, there is Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi.
What is the perception of the public? Winning the ticket is one thing, ability to win the general election is another. Across the federation, observers are putting the aspirants on the scale.
The main Southsouth aspirant has no base. In 2025 and 2019, he consistently lost his native Rivers to the PDP, despite being the APC presidential campaign manager. Even, the APC chapter in the oil-rich state is fragmented. The polarisation has been counter-productive. It has been inimical to any team effort.
Southeast APC has not invested much in the APC. It has remained a PDP stronghold, although the main opposition party does not believe that it can pick a presidential candidate from any of the five states.
The Southwest has been the backbone of the ruling party in the South. The undisputed leader is the frontline aspirant, Tinubu, household name and national figure, who has never restricted himself to the zonal corner as a regional champion.
Tinubu has a national outlook. He has established himself as a bridge builder, an arrowhead who has contributed to the growth of the party along with compatriots from other zones. He is always at the fore front of the struggle to install or keep APC as the ruling party.
Even, in many years to come, Osinbajo, Amosu and other Southwest aspirants combined may not be able to match Tinubu in terms of political work, strategy, foresight, resilience and courage. Indeed, the aspirants evolved from the Tinubu progressive structure. They may have come of age in their respective political careers. But, Nigerians have always reminded them about their ascendancy, their root, source, foundation and rise to stardom.It is naturally that party elders and leaders from Southwest should urge them to make their first critical sacrifice to the political colossus, who had indisputably served them in the last two decades, in deference to age, hierarchy, and leadership.
If APC is desirous of winning, it should make a wise choice.
Nation
It is a defining moment for the All Progressives Congress (APC). The ruling party is set to take a decision today. The step it is about to take has implications for its future.
After zoning, the question is: since the party want to retain power beyond 2023, who is the presidential aspirant who can generate the enthusiasm? Put succinctly, who is the contender who can face the opposition candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar? Who is the contender who can win the election for APC?
To analysts, It may be a make or mar primary. Delegates are storming Eagle Square in Abuja, the venue of the historic exercise, in that mood of anxiety and great expectation.
Remarkably, party leaders have resolved to embrace reality. Obviously, they are looking beyond the shadow poll. The electorate are also watching. Even, PDP leaders are maintaining a keen interest in the affairs of the ruling party.
According to observers, it is risky to make a slight mistake. Therefore, only a right step in the right direction can guarantee the survival of the party.
The party leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, is sensitive to the prospects and dangers ahead. For APC to retain power in next year’s election, he has deployed his wisdom by guiding the party to dismantle certain impediments and threat to unity and cohesion.
The party has rekindled the confidence of the South by opting for zoning. Unlike the pompous Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which violated its own rotational principle and dared the consequences, APC has decided to give the two bloc regions-North and South-a sense of belonging. The picture of master-servant relationship may fizzled out.
While the Northern PDP is monopolising the two slots of national chairman and presidential flagbearer, Northern APC is more democratic, practical and conciliatory.
It is the first time zoning will be pronounced publicly by any major political party. In the years ahead, the example of openess, frankness, sincerity and sacrifice displayed by President Buhari, Northern APC governors and other leaders will serve as a veritable political precedent.
Historians will allude to it as the building block of national unity, a factor in geo-political balance and a great pillar of stability.
What APC should do today is to strive to build on the feat that has forged cohesion, togetherness and brotherhood. Aspirants from the South should think deeply, resolve to collaborate and trade in political realities.
While addressing the Progressive Governors’ Forum last week, President Buhari highlighted the qualities of the candidate that APC should pick at the presidential convention. He emphasised that the candidate should be someone who would give the Nigerian masses a sense of victory and confidence, even before the elections.
President Buhari has demonstrated a commitment to truth. He is realistic and objective.
The ball is now in the court of Southern aspirants. Instructively, the president, who wants a rancour-free primary, has also advised the aspirants to brainstorm and choose among themselves a towering aspirant who seems to have a comparative edge, based on the criteria of relative popularity, support base, formidable structure, wider networks, bridge building, experience, competence, intellectual arsenal, long years of effective political mobilisation and national acceptability.
All the aspirants appear to be qualified for the ticket, based on constitutional provisions, education, party membership and commitment to the platform. After the emergence of the standard bearer, team work will still be required. Each aspirant would still be critical to winning at the poll.
What the president has urged them to do is introspection, deep self-assessment, and to embrace the reality of the fact that the presidential race of 2023 will not be a tea party, a child’s play and a amateurish contest. It will be a big battle between the APC, which has ruled for eight years, and the PDP, which, having misused the opportunity of 16 years and left in the cold for eight years, is making a spirited attempt to bounce back.
Four aspirants are from the race in the Southwest-Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Senator Ibikune Amosu and Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi. In the East, there is elderstatesman Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu. In the Southsouth, there is Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi.
What is the perception of the public? Winning the ticket is one thing, ability to win the general election is another. Across the federation, observers are putting the aspirants on the scale.
The main Southsouth aspirant has no base. In 2025 and 2019, he consistently lost his native Rivers to the PDP, despite being the APC presidential campaign manager. Even, the APC chapter in the oil-rich state is fragmented. The polarisation has been counter-productive. It has been inimical to any team effort.
Southeast APC has not invested much in the APC. It has remained a PDP stronghold, although the main opposition party does not believe that it can pick a presidential candidate from any of the five states.
The Southwest has been the backbone of the ruling party in the South. The undisputed leader is the frontline aspirant, Tinubu, household name and national figure, who has never restricted himself to the zonal corner as a regional champion.
Tinubu has a national outlook. He has established himself as a bridge builder, an arrowhead who has contributed to the growth of the party along with compatriots from other zones. He is always at the fore front of the struggle to install or keep APC as the ruling party.
Even, in many years to come, Osinbajo, Amosu and other Southwest aspirants combined may not be able to match Tinubu in terms of political work, strategy, foresight, resilience and courage. Indeed, the aspirants evolved from the Tinubu progressive structure. They may have come of age in their respective political careers. But, Nigerians have always reminded them about their ascendancy, their root, source, foundation and rise to stardom.It is naturally that party elders and leaders from Southwest should urge them to make their first critical sacrifice to the political colossus, who had indisputably served them in the last two decades, in deference to age, hierarchy, and leadership.
If APC is desirous of winning, it should make a wise choice.
Nation
