The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, on Tuesday, disclosed that the party would prefer having a consensus candidate than having an unpopular candidate for the Anambra governorship ticket ahead of the November 25 election.
Ganduje also pledged to present an award to Anambra APC if they could be united and produce a consensus candidate to avoid the stress and the financial jamboree that comes with holding the conventional primary election to elect a candidate.
The former Kano State governor disclosed this when he hosted an APC support group known as Booth 2 Booth with Bola Tinubu at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.
While assuring them that his leadership will ensure a fair and credible primary election in Anambra, Ganduje urged stakeholdersjostling for the ticket not to throw the state into chaos.
He said, “As a party, if we are to have good primary in the state, all our stakeholders are supposed to be born again. They (aspirants) are educated and rich. But we have told them that this time, it will not be business as usual. Let us support the system.
“We know they are very rich. But they should not use the money to scatter the state. They should use the money to develop the state and the APC. In fact, I would be highly interested if they could produce a candidate through consensus, and I would give them an award.
“You mention the option of direct or indirect primary. As an institution, I assure you, we will sit with the National Working Committee in conjunction with the leadership of the party in the state and agree on whichever method is best for the primary.”
Earlier, the National Coordinator of the group, Iyke Madu, told members of the National Working Committee that they are ready to work together only if the primary election winner emerges through a credible process.
He said, “We are here to make a request to see to it that a credible, free, free and transparent primary is conducted in Anambra State. This is to avoid the pitfalls of 2021, where primary election results were announced in hotel rooms, and a candidate who got 300,000 votes in the primaries could not even get up to 50,000 votes at the main contest against other parties.
“There is also the issue of insecurity in Anambra. As we speak, even the state government could not conduct their own local government elections due to insecurity. So we are here only requesting for the party to adopt an indirect primary method. Our constitution provides for that.”
