Dada Olusegun, an aspirant for the National Youth position
at the APC National Convention, climbed the stage and conceded to his opponent,
Dayo Israel, in tears.
Hadi Sirika, the Minister of Aviation, shoved the microphone
to the young Olusegun, ‘gba’ and told him in Yoruba language, which means,
‘take it.’ The young man could not hold back his emotion.
Mr Israel is the candidate of the governor of the state,
Babajide Sanwoolu.
It was not only Dada who got that treatment on the ground,
even a former Minister, Bayo Shittu, got the same treatment.
Mr Shittu, who aspired for the position of National
Secretary found himself outside the unity list, as the governors had adopted
Iyiola Omisore as the candidate.
The governors had released a unity list, which they all
signed. To prevent the possibility of an election, the convention was delayed
till about 10 pm, instead of the 3:30 pm on agenda for the convention.
As at the time the convention started, many of the delegates
were already tired, as some had been at the convention since 10 am.
Begging Bayo Shittu
The former Minister, Shittu, had resolved not to withdraw
from the race until he was prevailed upon by former Ogun State Governor, Segun
Osoba.
Osoba apologised to Shittu on behalf of the Yoruba people.
He said the former Minister was neither consulted nor appealed to on the issue
the list.
Speaking after the appeal, Shittu said nobody spoke with him
about stepping down for anyone.
Another aspirant for that position, Abideen Olaiya, said he
already lost 9 elections in his lifetime and was ready to contest the election
even if he is going to lose.
“President said we should consult, and if there’s no
consensus we should go to election since nobody consulted me, I expected that
we would go for election,” he said, before stepping down for Omisore.
While these gentlemen yielded to the pressure to step down,
Effiom Boco did not step down for Betta Edu for the position of National Women
leader.
The governor of Cross River, who recently decamped to the
APC from the PDP nominated Mrs Edu, a Commissioner for Health.
The two candidates battled it out at the poll and Edu
emerged victoriously.
Buhari took National Chairman, governors shared other posts
It would be recalled that the Governor of Kaduna State,
Nasir Elrufai had disclosed that the governors prevailed on President Muhammadu
Buhari to nominate a candidate for the National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu.
Following several meetings and appeals by the president, six
of the candidates stepped down for Adamu.
However, a source in one of the camps of the national
chairmen, said it was not just the appeal, that even traditional rulers were
deployed to prevail on the aspirants.
While the President was able to get Adamu, the governors
failed to deliver their candidates, particularly, the southern governors like
Ben Ayade, Babajide Sanwoolu of Cross River and Lagos States respectively.
It was evident that the governors did not hold a meeting
with some of the aspirants outside the ‘unity’ list.
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