A National Chairmanship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, Abdulaziz Yari, has warned President Muhammadu Buhari against imposing a candidate on members of the party like he did with Adams Oshiomhole.
Yari, a former Governor of Zamfara State, said this after a meeting with Senators elected on the platform of the APC.
After the meeting held at the Senate Wing of the National Assembly on Tuesday, Yari recalled how Buhari allegedly singlehandedly handpicked former Governor Oshiomhole as the APC National Chairman.
Few weeks ago, there was a media report that President Buhari had endorsed Senator Adamu Abdullahi as his preferred choice for the chairmanship seat.
When newsmen asked Yari about the endorsement, the former governor said he heard the rumour through the social media.
He, however, said the President through his media office had denied stories about his anointed candidate.
Yari said: “You have also been reading in the newspapers that President Muhammadu Buhari did not anoint anybody.
“The Special Adviser on Media, Garba Shehu, has since clarified that.
“We are trying to break those jinx.
“We must come through the ballot box so that we can respect the votes of the people not by picking.
“Let me remind them: those that think they can just be pushed forth, come and do it, that it will not be business as usual.
“The President made a mistake in the past by anointing Adams Oshiomhole singlehandedly.
“Nobody voted for him.
“He was anointed as the national chairman and you can see the result today.
“Do you want to remain like that?”
On the party’s arrangement which zoned the national chairmanship position to the North Central, Yari said he was not aware of such things.
He said: “I am not aware that.
“The party zoned the national chairmanship position to the North Central.
“What we were briefed was that the positions of the North should go to the South and that of the South to the North.
“That is what the caucus sat down to agree.
“I am one of them and many others are not.
“Therefore as you see in the social media that is the same way I saw it in the social media and as a senior person in this party, I cannot rely on information from the Social Media they deserved to be verified.
“In any case, one thing we should be determined to do is to bring about true democracy.
“For instance, this particular office is always being marred by all sorts of arrangement that did not deliver the right choice of the people.
“For instance, should the chairmanship be zoned to northern Nigeria and presidency to the South, are we going to dictate to the zone who should be chosen?
“No!
“We are trying to break that jinx and embrace the real democracy.
“I did not know any issue about zoning because it was not communicated to me.
“I only saw it on social media
“I have already purchased my form and you know that it is the National Assembly that makes laws for everyone.
“Whether reconciliation or any other process, I have already picked the form.
“We are ready to meet in the ballot box.”