By Emmanuel Nduka
President Muhammadu Buhari has emphasized that he never anointed Senate President Ahmed Lawan as a consensus candidate to replace him in 2023.
This latest position of the President was the outcome of Monday’s meeting with northern governors and members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling party.
The position of the President now means that National Chairman Abdullahi Adamu is solely on his own with the choice of Lawan, as Buhari has officially consented for power to be returned to the south.
There is now a thick wall of confusion even as northern governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) reaffirmed their decision to stand by power shift to the south.
It was gathered that Adamu, had on Monday announced the choice of Lawan at a meeting of the NWC held at the party’s National Secretariat.
But sources disclosed that the decision however did not go down well with members of the NWC who angrly rebuffed the National Chairman.
It was also athered that governors of the party from northern region had met with Buhari and insisted on their earlier position that the next President must come from the southern part of Nigeria.
While the governors meeting with the President was not conclusive, Buhari directed them to go reconcile with the NWC.
Another member of the NWC who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Adamu’s choice of Lawan was his personal opinion and not that of the NWC or the party for that matter.
Adamu’s adoption of Lawan as consensus candidate is against the position of 11 APC northern governors who endorsed that power must shift to the south after President Buhari’s tenure.
Before now, Adamu had told the NWC that he arrived at the choice of Lawan after consultation with President Buhari.
