There is considerable anxiety among leaders of the two leading political parties, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), about the disagreement over how their presidential candidates for the 2023 general election should emerge.
Indeed, there are fears that the two political parties may be enmeshed in fresh crises in the coming weeks over the issue.
While some chieftains of both APC and PDP have been rooting for the selection of the presidential candidates through consensus based on the agreement of a few leaders, which is allowed by the Electoral Act, a host of others see the option as undemocratic and another way of imposing the choice of a few members on others and therefore oppose it.
Although many of the stakeholders are particularly concerned about how the presidential candidate of their parties would emerge, the issue has also been raising dust in some states where attempts by the outgoing governors to determine their successors by consensus have so far failed to get the endorsement of key stakeholders.
This is particularly the case in Akwa Ibom and Ebonyi states. In Akwa Ibom, PDP stalwarts are yet to buy into Governor Emmanuel Udom’s choice of Pastor Umoh Eno as his preferred successor. This was even as efforts by Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State to broker a consensus agreement among governorship aspirants in the state chapter of the APC suffered setback within the week as the Izzi clan of Ebonyi North failed to shortlist two aspirants as demanded by the governor.
The situation in Ebonyi is akin to what is playing out among PDP presidential aspirants, where the zoning crisis has been obstructing attempts by some presidential aspirants in the party to forge a consensus arrangement to facilitate the emergence of the presidential candidate.
Accordingly, serious suspicion and misgivings have set in among the leading presidential aspirants and have put proponents of consensus arrangement on the defensive.
