THE new national leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC) may have jettisoned the indirect primary option in selecting its candidates for elective offices.

National chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole last week while inaugurating non-national working committee of the party had said the indirect option in the choice of the party standard bearers for elections was not sacrosanct and further noted that all the other options, consensus and direct primary were on the table.

Addressing newsmen after a rigorous NWC meeting, Comrade Oshiomhole disclosed that direct primary would be adopted in the conduct of Thursday primary to pick its candidate for Osun State governorship election fixed for September.

The immediate past Edo State government submitted that the direct primary would take the party back to its ordinary faithful and ultimately, deepen internal democracy.

He said: “We have decided that in other to ensure popular participation, and to deepen democracy in Osun State, in-line with the provision of our party constitution which allow for either direct or indirect primary, we have resolved that the governorship election primary in Osun State will be conducted on the basis of direct primary. What that means is that every card carrying member of our party will participate in the process of nominating the flag bearer of the party.

“This for us is the most democratic way to conduct the election and is in line with what our critical stakeholders from that part of the country want and we are quite happy to oblige. The whole idea of that the more we allow our party members to participate in the process of nominating candidates, we will remove the issue of corruption or monetizing the processes of nominating ageing candidates, in addition to the fact that party members will have a sense of ownership of the outcome of the exercise.

“I think our slogan changes, but we have not changed from bad to worse. We have only changed from a situation where only a few delegates who fly the flag of the party to one in which all party members have a say and can participate actively. Our democracy has to grow and our constitution allows for this process and I am proud that the people of Osun State are ready to go through the whole hog of allowing party members rather than allowing party caucus to determine who fly our flag. I think that is more democratic. ”

“We see in America how party leaders go from one leader to another as voting goes on even before they come back to the proper election and I think the beauty in that is those members have a sense of ownership of that person and therefore we have a duty to mobilize for that person so that he wins. We are not detained by a particular approach but we are doing this in line with the wishes of the real stakeholders in Osun state as we know then.”

He further disclosed that Zamfara State governor and Chairman Nigerian Governors’ Forum Abdul Aziz Yari, would lead the team that would conduct the Osun State APC primary.

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“We have also decided to nominate a panel that will be chaired by the governor of Zamfara State who is also the chairman of the governors’ forum. We have no doubt that no one can compromise him and will approach this exercise in line with the spirit and letters of our constitution. He will be assisted by four others who will work wit( him to ensure that this direct primary is conducted hitch free and the outcome lay a foundation for popular mobilization of the Osun electorates.

The APC national chairman revealed that all the 17 aspirants who picked the Expression of Interest and Nomination forms were cleared by the screening committee.

“We have gone through the screening exercise of the 17 aspirants who obtained a nomination form and have been cleared to contest the primary. We are impressed that the 17 of them are competent enough to effectively govern the state an that we don’t lack competent hands to provide leadership in Osun State after the exit of Rauf Aregbesola.

“Over the next couple of days, we will do everything we can to ensure that those that we have cleared recognize that even though they have been cleared, we only need one of them to fly the flag of the party. So, 16 of them has to be able to find some comfort even if they are not favored through the nomination process because this party can only nominate one candidate.

“Regardless of who win the primary, we hope that the rest of them will support the person to ensure that we do our best to retain the governance of Osun State.”

On the planned defection of the Benue State governor, Dr Samuel Orton, Comrade Oshiomhole dismissed it as a rumour as he claimed that he was not aware.

“I know that governor Ortom is a very senior member of the party and he has said so repeatedly in print and has said to me one on one that he will not leave the APC unless he was pushed out.

I have since assumed chairmanship of this party along with my colleagues in the NWC and I know of a fact that we have not shut out any governor and certainly not governor Ortom. And in these days of social media, I will not be responding on the basis of rumor and unverified reports. In fact, talking about unconfirmed sources, on Saturday, I was in Lagos to honour an appointment that had been booked for over the past six months and I felt obliged to honour that appointment and yet some of these merchants of untruth and fabricators of fake news posted all sorts of stories including one of which I was being interviewed in Ekiti. I was only there on Monday to address Labour leaders and on Tuesday, to participate in the grand finale of the campaigns of which Mr President was there and I left Ekiti that same day on the same aircraft as Mr President.”

Speaking on weekend victory of the party candidate in Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi, he assured all those who worked for the party victory that they would not be disappointed.

“We are very proud of this accomplishment and we have asked Dr. Fayemi to use the intervening period between now and then to reflect on all that he need to reflect on so that by time he is sworn in formally, he will hit the ground running because the Ekiti people can not afford to wait any longer to begin to see a renewed and refocused leadership that will ensure the quality of life of the Ekiti people. We have also appealed to him to readily see the wisdom to carry along various shades of opinion and also reach out to the opposition and ensure that he carry them along in the governance of the state . That is the promise of democracy. In fact, democracy work well regardless of who wins, if the winner governs well for the benefit of all. Indeed, the people can never lose in a democracy and we trust that Fayemi will do all that, including addressing the huge liability.”

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