Hundreds of irate demonstrators descended on the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress, APC, yesterday to protest plans by the party leadership to bring former President Goodluck Jonathan into the fold in the hopes of handing him the presidential ticket in 2023.
The protest occurred on the same day that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and Pastor Tunde Bakare, Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, purchased the party’s Presidential Nomination and Expression of Interest forms.
Senator Ibikunle Amosun, the former governor of Ogun State, announced his desire to run for president in 2023 on the APC platform yesterday.
Senator Kabiru Gaya, head of the Progressive Project, TPP, an umbrella organization of all support groups lobbying for the Osinbajo presidency in 2023, led the groups in selecting the forms, while Bakare promised to hit the ground running if he wins the ticket and becomes Nigeria’s president.
In a petition to the APC North-South Patriotic Coalition, the demonstrators stated that the party must retrace its steps “in order to avoid losing power in the next series of elections” if it wants to retain its winning run.
“The rumour has been about for some time now that former President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP was being wooed by some major players inside the APC to join the Party and fly its presidential ticket for the 2023 election.
“This Jonathan project cannot fly simply because it cannot help our party and we want to do our best to ensure that our party does not fall victim of ill-advised action that can push the party out of power.
“One of the most telling negative implications of such an action is that the APC does not have anyone of electoral value who can win election for us except we smuggle in a former president we defeated seven years ago for his glaring incompetence as president.
”In APC today, there are presidential aspirants with credible pedigrees and humongous electoral value and capacity.
“It is not only unnecessary to smuggle Jonathan into our great party, it is also self-indicting and meaning that our party’s performance in office has been worse than an administration that Nigerians thoroughly rejected and voted APC in 2015,” said Alhaji Toyin Rahim, who read the petition.