…charges Adamu to provide quality leadership

… consensus option ‘ll strengthen party ahead of 2023 elections -Amaechi

Henry Umoru & Levinus Nwabughiogu

The Senator representing Ekiti Central in the Senate, Opeyemi Bamidele has said that it took the stakeholders in the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC a long while to arrive at a consensus candidate for the chairmanship of the party.

It will be recalled that 6 aspirants got the party chairmanship Saturday afternoon stepped down for Senator Abdullahi Adamu who was also President Muhammadu Buhari’s annointed.

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Speaking exclusively to Sunday Vanguard at Eagles Square, the venue of the national convention of the party, Bamidele also charged Adamu to evolve quality leadership for the party.

He said that the aspirants were not pressured to withdraw from the race, saying it was an appeal.

He added that the situation would have nosedived had the aspirants were not allowed to participate in the process of obtaining their nomination forms and campaigning.

He said: “Well, I think it was a wonderful thing for several aspirants to have come out to contest for the chairmanship of the party but I think it’s a better deal that the aspirants who have demonstrated capacity to reconcile. They have shown that it is not a desperate situation and our hope and prayer is that the consensus candidate, His Excellency, Senator Abdullahi Adamu will be able to provide the much needed and anticipated quality leadership that we need to move the party forward.

“It was to the extent that no body was forced to withdraw. All the 6 other aspirants have consented in writing to the consensus arrangement. I think it’s a step ahead.

“It was an appeal. There was no pressure on anybody. It was an appeal, an appeal that took a while. The President had been on this in the last 5 weeks even before he travelled. 

“It would have been worse if they didn’t allow them to obtain the form. They all paid. They had the opportunity to go round the country to campaign and it would have been bad if they didn’t have the opportunity of contesting”

Asked if the party had learnt any lesson against the backdrop of a similar situation in Ekiti State where he was a gubernatorial aspirant, Bamidele said that no one call them together.

“What we complained our in Ekiti was different from what we are getting now. I cannot recall that anybody called us together as aspirants in Ekiti to talk to us and to see the possibility of consensus. So, it was different. Here, people took forms, campaigned and at the end of the day, Mr. President day sat down with them along with other party stakeholders, the governors, leadership of the national assembly to talk to them. And even after the President had talked to them, up until this morning, consensus talk still continued and all them voluntarily withdrew and consented in writing. Like I said, this is a step ahead and we will eventually get there”, Senator Bamidele said.

In a related development, the Minister of Transport, Chibuike Ameachi to Sunday Vanguard described the consensus option as a good development for the party.

He said that it will strengthen the party ahead of the general election in 2023.