…DISQUALIFIED ASPIRANTS FORFEIT N1 BILLION T0 APC
The Chairman of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Aspirants Screening Committee, John Oyegun, has said that the committee disqualified 10 aspirants for inexperience, lack of capacity and in-depth understanding of the issues facing the country.
However, the Oyegun Panel cleared 13 aspirants for the primaries scheduled for June 6-8, 2022.
Oyegun a former National Chairman of the APC said that the panel focused on parameters such as experience, understanding of the nation’s challenges, the capacity to address them among others to arrive at their decision to disqualify the ten members who by implication have forfeited N1 billion to the APC.
Each of the aspirants pay N100 million for the expression of interest and nomination form of the APC.
Oyegun spoke while presenting the report of the Presidential aspirants screening committee to the National Chairman of the party in Abuja on Friday.
“There were two aspects to it. The basic constitutional qualifications for you to aspire to be president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That was simple and straightforward and in that basis, I think every single aspirant that presented himself qualified because it was basic, it was simple.
“But we are a governing party and we are keen on continuing the process and replacing our President at the proper time with yet another member of the party.
“So the ability to lead, your background, your experience, your understanding of the Nigerian situation, your ideas as to how issues, difficulties, problems can be addressed became a critical consideration.
“It is on that basis, who are you? What have you achieved; your understanding of your nation and what you think you can contribute to move the nation forward…. It was on the basis of this that we made our final shortlist. I don’t want to read the names. I think I will leave that to you but I think we have a short list which brought the number severely down to 13.”
He explained further that more aspirants would have been disqualified if not for the position of the party to create the opportunity for the youths to present themselves to be seen and even picked as the flag-bearer.
“We could have cut it a little shorter but we wanted deliberately the younger elements to showcase themselves for them to be seen, for them to be noticed. And who knows we hand them over to the party for the party to decide who the Presidential candidate will be. It is also an opportunity to showcase the kind of persons in the party, their youthfulness, their kind of experience, to let the world know that this is a party that cares for the young. That this is a party that when we say the young can aspire we really mean it and this has been showcased in the report that we have written.”
In concluding his presentation, Oyegun urged the leadership of the APC to take cognizance of the growing debate over power rotation involving the North, the South and the Presidency.
He urged them to ensure that the debate on the power shift influences the party’s decision in picking its candidate.
“I think I will just conclude by saying that we only throw a word of caution that there is this cleavage that is gradually becoming centre stage in national discourse between the North and the South and the Presidency and we just want to advise strongly that the party should please think of it, in making its decisions, address it and let it influence their thoughts because it has its own implications.”
