The national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has said that he does not underrate the power of the governors of the party to determine how the next presidential candidate of the party will emerge.
Tinubu spoke in reaction to the statement by the Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, who criticized Tinubu’s position that there would not be an automatic ticket for President Muhammadu Buhari for the next election.
Tinubu’s position is contrary to that of Okorocha.
Following Tinubu’s position, Okorocha had said the leader of the party was in a way undermining the power of the governors who had resolved to give Buhari an automatic ticket.
But explaining his position, Tinubu said he only advised the party not to follow the opposition party, PDP, in its “penchant for short-circuiting internal democracy” through the use of automatic ticket.
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In a statement, Tinubu’s media aide, Mr. Tunde Rahman, said: “Asiwaju (Tinubu) never said anything that could be interpreted as meaning or even implying the governors are irrelevant or insignificant to the party’s nomination process.”
The statement reads further: “As a former governor and a leading statesman within the party, such words would never come from him.
“Moreover, Asiwaju is a democrat who believes that the open and democratic processes of the APC, which led to the nomination of President Buhari in the first instance, have served the party well and helped distinguish APC from PDP and other parties where fairness and internal democracy are rare commodities.
“Every individual has a right to endorse or support a candidate of his choosing. What Asiwaju said at that encounter and still canvasses is that the APC should not mimic the PDP’s penchant for short-circuiting internal democracy by promoting the idea of an automatic ticket.
“The exercise of internal democracy and honouring the letter and spirit of party rules can only strengthen the party and enthuse its members.
“APC’s all-inclusive philosophy was not devised today. It had been with the party since its creation. It was this spirit, which we believe, attracted fellow progressives and those who genuinely believe in democracy in all of its aspects to the party. Asiwaju includes Governor Okorocha in this group.”
