The Nigerian Political Headmaster, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, has urged the 23 Political Class Masters aspiring for the office of President to hold discussions, and come up with a formidable candidate before the primary election starting on Monday.
President Buhari yesterday night met with All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential aspirants at the State House, Abuja.
While saluting the aspirants for their “courage and selfless spirit” in volunteering to serve in the highest office of the land, Buhari said the meeting was a continuation of ongoing consultative process aimed at ensuring a smooth and strategic emergence of a standard bearer.
“Our victories in 2015 and 2019 were achieved through unity of purpose, strategic alignment, consultation, fairness, determination and effective leadership.
“In both instances, national and party interests were overriding factors in our deliberations and decision-making” Buhari stressed.
The President further said with 2023 approaching, the party should become more aware of the changing environment, be responsive to the yearnings of citizens, re-evaluate strategy and strengthen internal mechanisms.
“Dear distinguished aspirants, our choice of flag bearer must be formidable, appealing to the electorate and should command such ability to unify the country and capacity to address our critical challenges.
“I urge all of you to hold consultations amongst yourselves and with the party, to build a consensus in a manner that would help the party reduce the number of aspirants, bring up a formidable candidate and scale down the anxiety of party members”, he said.
Meanwhile, 11 Northern governors has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to consider a Southerner as his likely successor in 2023; they equally asked all the Northern presidential aspirants to withdraw from the race in national interest.
The governors issued a statement to this effect after a meeting on Saturday.
