** One group rooting for Muhammadu Buhari presidency, backed by a strong running mate from the South-west

** Bola Tinubu working towards drafting House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Tambuwal into the coalition's preesidential fray


With the formation of the interim national leadership of the opposition coalition party, All Progressives Congress, the battle may have shifted to the choice of its presidential candidate, as the opposition leaders strategise for the 2015 election.

THISDAY can reveal that at least four tendencies have emerged as stakeholders engage in permutations for the right choice of presidential flag-bearer for the yet-to-be registered APC.

The party is a merger involving Action Congress of Nigeria, All Nigeria Peoples Party, Congress for Progressive Change, and factions of All Progressives Grand Alliance and Democratic Peoples Party. Various groups in the merger are canvassing opinions and taking positions all in a bid to ensure that the candidate they back emerge victorious at the end of the day

One group comprising mostly prominent CPC leadersand stalwarts is rooting fervently for the party’s national leader, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd). Those in this group maintain that the former Head of State still has a cult following in the North, particularly in the North-west, and that his candidature, if backed by a strong running mate from the South-west, can power the APC to the presidency in 2015.

A top member of CPC who confided in THISDAY said there was no way APC could wish away the electoral value of a man who scored 12 million votes in an election that his party went into largely unprepared.

“Buhari still remains the man for APC, with his growing popularity in the North; it will only be wishful thinking for anyone to consider another candidate from the North to fly the APC flag in 2015. Such a plan will not only be rejected by majority of the opposition coalition leadership but would prove very naive in the context of present-day realities,” he said.

But there is also a proposal for the opposition coalition to consider a Northern Christian as its presidential candidate. THISDAY gathered that a Northern lobby group led by two former top military officers was linked with the plan to get a Christian candidate from the North to carry the opposition ticket. It was learnt that the idea behind the proposal for a Christian candidate was to try to assuage the feelings ofthose clamouring for a president of northern Nigeria extraction in 2015 and at the same time appeal to the northern minorities, who are considered to form President Goodluck Jonathan’s main support base in the North.

Fingered behind this idea are former Defence Minister, Lieutenant General T. Y. Danjuma (rtd), former military governor of Kaduna State, Colonel Dangiwa Umar (rtd), and Alhaji Abba Kyari, among others. The thinking is that a strong candidate of northern Christian extraction would help to checkmate Jonathan in the North, particularly among the northern minorities who are considered to be his strongest supporters in the region.

THISDAY learnt that former Peoples Democratic Party National Chairman, Chief Audu Ogbeh, an ACN chieftain and staunch member of the opposition coalition, and Leadership Newspaper publisher Sam Ndah-Isaiah were being considered by this group as potential presidential candidates.

One source who confirmed the move told THISDAY that the lobby group widened its search to include Ogbeh, an experienced politician and technocrat regarded as a moderate Christian from the Middle Belt, because his candidature could act as a bridge between the core South and the core North and ensure that the opposition clinched a victory at the poll.

Ndah-Isaiah, the Niger State-born pharmacist-turned-journalist and newspaper publisher, is said to enjoy a warm relationship and trust from most of the power brokers in the North, including Buhari.

Another group of APC leaders prominent among them ACN chieftains led by its National Leader, Aiswaju Bola Tinubu, is working towards drafting House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Tambuwal into the coalition's preesidential fray.
Tambuwal, a PDP stalwart, is known to be very close to Tinubu and ACN governors. The thinking of this pro-Tambuwal tendency is that the House Speaker is a moderate Northerner who may help forge a strong Southern and Northern support for APC.

There are, however, other groups working on getting the opposition merger to back candidates like former Kano State governor and ANPP presidential candidate in the 2011 general election, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, and Imo State Governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha.

Read more:
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/apc-groups-emerge-in-battle-for-presidential-ticket/151909/

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Na speculation joor! Sai Buhari!

Apc dead on arrival GEJ till 2019, na so confusion go scattered their evil plan.

This unregistered APC is surely on the speed lane heading towards unmitigable DISASTER

Much trials and error lead to settlIng for unintended consequences.

The summary of the whole article is about seeking for personality to drive APC to victory in 2015 presidential election.

Just the same reason I voted for GEJ and Rochas Okorocha for presidential and gubernatorial elections respectively.

Party ideologies and manifestos are dormant in Nigerian Politics and institutions of government are readily politicised for selfish ends.

The dangers in dependence on candidates instead of parties and ideologies include tribalism, division, undue criticism of the government, lack of trust among many catastrophes.

When will this concoctions called Nigeria be certified free of ethno-religious virus.

In all these equations and calculations where is the clown okorosha?

Can you imagine they are not even talking of SE running mate of which the clown would have some chances. Which shows that okorosha has been warming their seats all this while. Lmao

Nwokem start coming home cos this people have shown you again that you are not a factor that they do not reckon on you. I know that APGA and Obi will be pumping champagne over your being dead politically. Hahahahah

Ngige start coming home while you still have some room.

Audu Ogbe can not win his ward.APC is a dead party.Tinubu just dragged Buhari to his grave.

Nne kwa ndia choo irim... Anyi ga na agba osoo!

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If u biliv this news, u must biliv that pigs fly

fredopayee: Nne kwa ndia choo irim... Anyi ga na agba osoo!

odogwu imelam obi anuri