- I, on behalf of myself and my primary campaign organization, undertake to accept the outcome of the primaries and actively support whoever emerges as the winner and shall not decamp to any other political party or in any way obstruct the smooth prosecution of the presidential campaign...
All Progressives Congress, APC, has read the riot act to its five presidential aspirants, compelling them to sign an undertaking forbidding losers of the December 10, 2014 primaries from defecting to other parties.
While presenting the certificates of clearance to the five aspirants yesterday in Abuja, the party said its decision to compel them to sign an undertaking was to let them know that the APC is supreme.
The five aspirants who collected their clearance certificates yesterday at the APC’s national headquarters included former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari; former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar; Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha; his Kano State counterpart, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and Publisher of LEADERSHIP Newspapers, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah.
Chairman of the APC Presidential Screening Committee, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, said it became necessary to stampede the aspirants to sign an undertaking in order not to dissipate efforts in post-primary intra-party bickering, which according to him, would offer the party the best chance in next year’s presidential election.
He said: “We believe that our aspirants understand only one person can fly the party’s flag; then what happens to the rest four. They have all agreed that whomsoever that is elected to fly our flag, the other four will support him, and this is something very important to the party. They have also agreed that they will collapse the structures they now have into the party so that the party will move into this election united; this will offer the party the best chance to win the election next year.”
The content of the undertaking the aspirants signed reads, “I…do hereby undertake to abide by the rules and regulations of the APC nominations guidelines, APC constitution, the Electoral Act and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“I, on behalf of myself and my primary campaign organisation undertake to accept the outcome of the primaries and actively support whoever emerges as the winner and shall not decamp to any other political party or in any way obstruct the smooth prosecution of the presidential campaign.
“I further affirm that during the campaign and later in government, I shall be guided by the party’s manifesto.
“In the event of my nomination, I will immediately collapse my campaign structure into the party for a properly united and focused presidential campaign.”
Gen. Buhari, who spoke on behalf of the presidential aspirants, confirmed that the party stampeded them into signing the undertaking, but expressed their gratitude to the party leadership for the calibre of the members of the Presidential Screening Committee, headed by Dr. Onu.
“We are very grateful to our great party for organising such a competent team to interview us. It is a very trying time for the five of us, we are grateful that they are very generous in their award of marks. We have all made it; the rest of the decision is largely going to the public, which are the delegates. In a week’s time, somewhere in this country we will get together again to see whoever gets the certificate to emerge on behalf of the party. The secretary has read a letter, which we were made to sign yesterday, so that the loyalty to the party will be supreme,” Gen. Buhari said.
Earlier, Dr. Onu described the screening as rigorous and that the aspirants were tested on a range of areas. “During the screening exercise, we took the five aspirants through a very rigorous path. We also tested their understanding of the problems of this country. We believe that whosever will fly our flag must understand those problems. I must assure you that I am satisfied with the quality of people that are running for the presidency on the platform of APC. We believe that any of them by the help of God and Nigerians will be able to move Nigeria forward.”
Meanwhile, the party has confirmed Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos as the venue of its presidential primaries.
Chairman of the APC’s Presidential Convention Committee, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, said the committee settled for Lagos despite the initial protests by some aspirants after explaining to them why it is more suitable for the event.
He said that the logistics problems raised by the aspirants, especially those coming from the far North had been satisfactorily addressed.
Meanwhile, Atiku through a statement by his media office, has supported the party’s choice of Lagos.
He said: “I’ m not any less Lagosian than anyone is. I have a house in Lagos and a part of my large family lives in Lagos. I visit Lagos regularly so I’m not a stranger to the cosmopolitan city and what it represents as the melting pot of Nigeria.”
Atiku congratulated the government and the people of Lagos State on the opportunity offered them by APC to excel and showcase “the spirit of Lagos.”
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