All eyes on APC as presidential, governorship primaries process begin

As the All Progressives Congress presidential and governorship primaries process commence, Nigerians are watching with wrapt attention to see what will become the outcome of the whole events.

The primaries for the governorship candidates of the ruling party will be held on Friday, a process that will culminate in the emergence of its presidential candidate on June 1.

Delegates are expected to pick candidates in the 28 states where governorship elections will be held.

It will be five delegates per ward. There are 8,809 wards across the country.

Elected 2,322 delegates – three each from the 774 local government areas will join the statutory delegates to elect the party’s presidential standard bearer.

Already, the party has inaugurated 37 panels in one for each of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The panels, in addition to conducting the election of delegates, will also screen cleared aspirants for House of Assembly elections.

In eight states there will be no governorship elections in 2023 because elections in those states are off-season. The states are Bayelsa, Edo, Ondo, Anambra, Kogi, Imo as well as Ekiti and Osun.

For the Friday primaries, the APC has cleared 145 aspirants.

Also, of the 351 senatorial aspirants, 340 got a clean bill of health.

It was learnt that a senatorial aspirant from one of the Southwest states, who picked the nomination form, did not appear before any of the three screening panels at the weekend.

For the House Representatives, 

there are 1,197 aspirants.

On May 22, House of Assembly primaries in 36 states will be held; 2,822 aspirants will be screened between today and tomorrow.

The election to pick candidates for the House of Representatives is on May 24 and Senate on May 25.

According to the Chairman of the Kebbi State panel, Osita Okechukwu “What we are going to do is to screen those we think are qualified to run for the House of Assembly.

“We have over 3000 aspirants contesting across the country. For us to do a good job, we want to make it easier for the electorate by presenting those who are better, more qualified, that meet all the conditions.

“One of which is being a Nigerian, having gone to secondary school and being of good behaviour. This is our job.

“We are going to elect five delegates per ward and there are 8,809 wards in the country. Those elected five delegates per ward will go to the state and elect the governor.

“We are going to elect three delegates from each of the 774 local governments who will elect the presidential candidate.”

Senator Abubakar Kyari, Deputy National Chairman (North), who inaugurated the 37 Congresses Committees, said: “This is the foundation of all the primaries. We have just conducted the screening of the gubernatorial, senatorial and House of Representatives aspirants.

“But, the basic foundation is what you people are going to do, which is the election of local government and state delegates.”