· 2,340 ad hoc delegates to elect candidate

· North to have 1,257 delegates, South 1,068 delegates

WITH the latest decision of the National Working Committee, NWC, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, to allow ad-hoc delegates to elect the presidential candidate of the party at the May 30 to June 1 convention, two northern aspirants have emerged as frontrunners for the ticket.

Chairman of the Kebbi state Screening Appeals Committee and Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria, VON, Mr Osita Okechukwu, said three delegates would be elected from each of the nation’s 774 local government areas and six Area Councils of the FCT, Abuja making 2,340 delegates in total.

However, the figure will change if President Muhammadu Buhari assents to the Electoral Act 2022 Amendment Bill before him, which will allow statutory delegates to participate in the presidential primaries.

The current Electoral Act 2022 (as amended) has no role for statutory delegates at the convention.

Statutory or “Super” delegates are elected councillors, local government chairmen and their vice, party chairmen in the 774 LGAs and six Abuja area councils, state and federal lawmakers, governors and their deputies, president and vice president, NWC members, state party chairmen and secretaries.

The provision in the Principal Act reads: “A political party that adopts the system of indirect primaries for the choice of its candidate shall clearly outline in its constitution and rule the procedure for the democratic election of delegates to vote at the convention, congress or meeting.

Last week, federal lawmakers amended Section 84 of the Principal Act by deleting subsection ( and inserting a new subsection ( as follows: “A political party that adopts the system of indirect primaries for the choice of its candidates shall clearly outline in its constitution and rules the procedure for the democratic election of delegates to vote at the convention, congress or meeting, in addition to statutory delegates already prescribed in the Constitution of the party.”

For the presidential primaries, Okechukwu reportedly said: “We are going to elect three delegates from each of the 774 local governments, who will elect the president, but the first job is the screening and the delegates would be elected and the delegates would in turn elect the governorship and presidential candidates.”

New arrangements favours emergence of northern candidate

If President Buhari fails to assent the Electoral Act Amendment before the APC presidential primaries, the new delegate arrangement will favour the emergence of a northern candidate unless the APC zones the ticket to the South and takes special measures to produce a southern candidate.

The party is yet to zone the ticket and indications show that the contest would be thrown open.

A breakdown of the 2,340 delegates for the presidential primaries shows that the North has 1,257 delegates while the South has 1,068 delegates.

Also, the North-West zone with seven states and 121 local councils has 558 delegates. It is followed by the South-West, which has six states, 137 local councils and 411 delegates. Both zones account for 979 of the 2,340 delegates.

Going further, the South-South with six states and 123 local councils will have 369 delegates. The fourth zone in terms of delegate strength is North-Central (363 delegates). It has 121 local councils drawn from six states and FCT, Abuja. It is followed by the North-East (336 delegates) with six states and 112 local councils.

The least zone is South-East with five states, 96 local councils and 288 delegates.

Among the 23 presidential aspirants still left in the race for the APC ticket 19 are from the South and four are from the North.

Among the Southern aspirants eight are from the South-East that has the least number of delegates; seven are from the South-West; and the South-South has four.

In the North, North-West has two while North-East and North-Central has one each.

The aspirants

The aspirants from South-West are Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Senator Ajayi Borrofice, Mr. Dimeji Bankole, Dr Tunde Bakare, Dr Kayode Fayemi and Senator Ibikunle Amosun.

Those from the South-East are Chief Emeka newajiuba, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, Senator Rochas Okorocha, Engr Dave Umahi, Senator Ken Nnamani, Mr. Nicholas nwagbo, Mr. Ikeobasi Mokelu and Mrs. Uju Ohanenye.

The contenders from the South-South are Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, Senator Godswill Akpabio, Senator Ben Ayade, and Mr. Tein Jack-Rich.

The aspirants from the North are Alhaji Yahaya Bello (North-Central), Senate President Ahmad Lawan (North-East), Mohammed Badaru (North-West) and Ahmed Yerima (North-West).

With President Muhammadu Buhari hailing from the North-West, some stakeholders are fingering Yahaya Bello and Lawan and as potential northern consensus candidates for the APC ticket.

If that happens, with the huge delegates from the North, and likely division of the southern delegates among the crowd of southern aspirants either of Bello or Lawan could pick the prized ticket.

Already both aspirants are waxing strong and receiving support from many parts of the country. Bello, recently, said he is ready for any format or mode of primary – Direct, Indirect or Consensus, saying he is the candidate to beat among the crowd of aspirants in APC.

Zonal breakdown of APC delegates

South-South

Akwa Ibom -93

Bayelsa – 24

Cross River – 54

Delta – 75

Edo – 54

Rivers – 69

Total – 369

South-East

Abia – 54

Anambra – 63

Enugu – 51

Ebonyi – 39

Imo – 81

Total – 288

South-West

Lagos – 60

Ekiti – 48

Ogun – 60

Osun – 90

Oyo – 99

Ondo – 54

Total – 411

North-East

Adamawa – 63

Bauchi – 60

Gombe – 33

Borno – 81

Yobe – 51

Taraba -48

Total – 336

North-Central

Kogi – 63

Kwara – 48

Benue – 69

Plateau – 51

Nasarawa – 39

Niger – 75

FCT, Abuja – 18

Total – 363

North-West

Kaduna – 69

Kano – 132

Katsina – 102

Kebbi – 63

Jigawa – 81

Sokoto – 69

Zamfara – 42

Total – 558

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/05/apc-presidential-ticket-new-delegates-template-favours-bello-lawan/
Lalasticlala
Mynd44

Even for d tentative arrangement sef, Lagos and Osun alone get 150 wey be about 40% of total delegates for SW. By d time Jagaban add d 99 from Oyo and Aketi's 54, o pari niyen

:oWatching keenly for the mistake that would bring them down

Urchins how market?

time 4 real politrik.

I think a serious aspirant will employ the service of SET IN MATHEMATICS to ascertain his chances with these delegate breakdown by states and regions.

They have destroyed tinubu with the large number of contestants from the south. The north have a game plan

Bastards..

They should scheme themselves in and out for all we care. My only worry is that Nigerians and Nigeria will forever continue to be the dupe of all these demons.

Even Osun and Oyo get more delegates than Lagos.

The greedy frog eyed one go use him nose smell him nyansh by the time dem don finish with am.

Greedy idiots..

Lol
Pipe dream

This is why it has to be zoned to the south and the most popular candidates emerges . I keep saying it , if we don't have zoning it's possible only Northerners emerge our president. Now we have an aspirant that stepped down for a popular Northerner .

Unless southerners learn to be one they'll continue to be played...

Oj

The next president must be from the South. The North contributes about 15% of GDP and about 5% of government revenues, yet they control allocation of resources with their fictitious population.

These guys are parasites, yet you still see Southerners clamouring for a Northern candidate. The number one priority for any Southern president MUST be to restructure the country and practice true federalism. How can the beggar continously dictate to their principal.

Also, the North-West zone with seven states and 121 local councils has 558 delegates. It is followed by the South-West, which has six states, 137 local council and less then 411 delegates?

Realist12:
This is why it has to be zoned to the south and the most popular candidates emerges . I keep saying it , if we don't have zoning it's possible only Northerners emerge our president. Now we have an aspirant that stepped down for a popular Northerner .

See hypocrisy u want it zone to south but not to south east ?

mrvitalis:

See hypocrisy u want it zone to south but not to south east ?

Hypocrisy is when South east invested all their efforts in PDP, while Southwest ACN brought almost all governors and several senators and political office holders to the table to bargain. And you expect them to do all of this and hand it over to the southeast and not even contest ?. No southeast should be asking PDP where they invested in to micro zone their ticket to only the south east not APC. Same south east candidates are already stepping down for a Northern candidate.
This is similar to the case king Solomon used his wisdom to judge in the Bible, now let's ask who truly deserves custody of the child. Or should the whole south kill the child (ambition) , by handing it to the north ?

Realist12:
Hypocrisy is when South east invested all their efforts in PDP, while Southwest ACN brought almost all governors and several senators and political office holders to the table to bargain. And you expect them to do all of this and hand it over to the southeast. No southeast should be asking PDP where they invested in to micro zone their ticket to the south east not APC.

Majority of southern leaders are PDP na ...so why should APC zone it south ?

All thesame evil

Becoming the President of Nigeria is my lifelong ambition

Some people go cry ehn

Is APC really insane? What precedence qualifies Yeye Bello to be a contender for president? It seems Nigerians are not willing to progress! Rubbish!!

Looking at things the north will still remain. They are very willing to get power from APC, PDP or any party irrespective of who becomes the annoited one among them. While south is saying APC, PDP, East, South, West and it must be me.

If the south is not careful, presidency will go back to d North. South is too divided, they are pawns in d chest board.

Tinubu SW APC refused microzoning in the south, because it is the turn of the SE to produce a successor to President Buhari; but Tinubu SW APC asks north to adhere to zoning to enable south produce a successor to President Buhari.
What a convoluted logic by Tinubu SW APC. The north is gonna jump on Tinubu's refusal of zoning principles and produce a successor to President Buhari.

If a Northerner emerges as the next president, the blame is on Southwest. You betrayed South in 2015 and still betraying South in the coming election of 2023 because of your greed!

I'm not saying you're from SW, I'm talking to Southwesterners

TooNoisy:
The next president must be from the South. The North contributes about 15% of GDP and about 5% of government revenues, yet they control allocation of resources with their fictitious population.

These guys are parasites, yet you still see Southerners clamouring for a Northern candidate. The number one priority for any Southern president MUST be to restructure the country and practice true federalism. How can the beggar continously dictate to their principal.

Realist12:
This is why it has to be zoned to the south and the most popular candidates emerges . I keep saying it , if we don't have zoning it's possible only Northerners emerge our president. Now we have an aspirant that stepped down for a popular Northerner .

Why did Buhari not defeat Jonathan then?

I hope you won't start churning out any mumu talk.

I am asking you the question base on your question.

Tinubu is boasting of winning election come rain, come sun. Lol

I guess his confident is rigging, that's if he can win the primary




A HUMAN VULTURE want to be my president.. Lol

Ashiere Tinubu In the mud

Bello is even rated in APC above Tinubu
Chei, who did Tinubu offend o