All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday said contrary to reports, the party has not taken any decision on who should become its presidential standardbearer in the forthcoming 2015 poll.
The party also said that the ongoing crises rocking chapters of the party in states like Ogun, Ondo, Sokoto, among others is normal and should be expected, describing them as a mere storm in a tea cup.
The party’s Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said this in Lagos at a media meet, declaring that the issue of who to flag the party’s flag in the 2015 presidential poll had never been discussed at all for reasons that the party had more pressing matters to address.
“Let me be honest with you, the issue of who should our presidential candidate has not been discussed at all. We have much to do right now. We have done registration of members, we have not elected of our officers, we only have interim arrangement in place and we have not done our congresses and national convention, it is the NEC of the party, when in place, that will formulate arrangements of how to pick the party’s presidential candidate,” he said.
The APC spokesperson said the alleged report concerning the party’s presidential candidate was not true, saying it was purely aimed at dividing the APC and preventing it from being focused by anti-democratic elements in the society.
He maintained that that was the official position of the party, pointing out that the APC would surely cross the bridge when it was time to do concerning who to be pick to fly the party’s flag as its presidential candidate.
Mohammed, who admitted that the party was facing some challenges in some of its state chapters, however, said that such were not to be expected of a party that emerged out of three legacy parties.
The parties that merged to form APC were the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACCN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) as well as some part of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
“On the issue of crisis, it is bound to happen as soon as the three legacy parties came together,” he said, noting that merger was like acquition as it happened sometime ago in banking sector and that basically each of the parties had their different arrangements ahead of 2015 before coming together as APC.
“If not for the merger, the parties on their individual basis would be waxing stronger towards 2015. We need to manage people’s ambition, aspirations. This is what we have been doing by setting up committees to go to states,” he said.
He, however, urged all APC members to learn from the example of the party leaders, including General Muhammadu Buhari, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, among others who had made and were still making personal sacrifices for the growth of democracy in the land.
“All this thing will be over. If the aim is to rescue Nigeria and not ourselves or for personal gain, we should do it,” he said.