Many of the aspirants who were not favoured by the unity list compiled by the All Progressives Congress Governors during the just concluded national convention faced forceful stepping down.
Dada Olusegun, an aspirant for the National Youth position at the the Convention, climbed the stage and conceded to his opponent, Dayo Israel, in tears.
Hadi Sirika, the Minister of Aviation, shoved the microphone to the young Olusegun, and uttered the word ‘gba’ which in Yoruba language, which means, ‘take it.’ The young man could not hold back his emotion.
Mr Israel is the candidate of the governor of the state, Babajide Sanwoolu.
It was not only Dada who got that treatment on the ground, even a former Minister, Barrister Adebayo Shittu, got the same treatment. Shittu, who aspired for the position of National Secretary found himself missing on the unity list, as the governors had adopted former Osun State Deputy Governor, Iyiola Omisore as their candidate.
The governors had released a unity list, which they all signed. To prevent the possibility of an election, the convention was delayed till about 10 pm, instead of the 3:30 pm on agenda for the convention.
As at the time the convention started, many of the delegates were already tired, as some had been at the convention since 10 am.
The former Minister, Shittu, had resolved not to withdraw from the race until he was prevailed upon by former Ogun State Governor, Segun Osoba.
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Osoba apologised to Shittu on behalf of the Yoruba people. He said the former Minister was neither consulted nor appealed to on the issue the list.
Speaking after the appeal, Shittu said nobody spoke with him about stepping down for anyone.
Another aspirant for that position, Abideen Olaiya, said he already lost 9 elections in his lifetime and was ready to contest the election even if he is going to lose.
“President said we should consult, and if there’s no consensus we should go to election since nobody consulted me, I expected that we would go for election,” he said, before stepping down for Omisore.
While these gentlemen yielded to the pressure to step down, Effiom Boco did not step down for Betta Edu for the position of National Women leader.
The governor of Cross River, who recently decamped to the APC from the PDP nominated Mrs Edu, a Commissioner for Health.
The two candidates battled it out at the poll and Edu emerged victoriously.
Buhari took National Chairman, governors shared other posts. It would be recalled that the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir Elrufai had disclosed that the governors prevailed on President Muhammadu Buhari to nominate a candidate for the National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu.
Following several meetings and appeals by the president, six of the candidates stepped down for Adamu.
However, a source in one of the camps of the national chairmen, said it was not just the appeal, that even traditional rulers were deployed to prevail on the aspirants.
While the President was able to get Adamu, the governors failed to deliver their candidates, particularly, the southern governors like Ben Ayade, Babajide Sanwoolu of Cross River and Lagos States respectively.
It was evident that the governors did not hold a meeting with some of the aspirants outside the ‘unity’ list.
