In the wake of the controversy that greeted the announcement of Senate President Ahmed Lawan as the consensus candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC by the Chairman of the Party, Adamu Abdullahi, former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu has said the Chairman could not have acted on his own.
When asked if the decision was from the President, Kalu said, “The Chairman of the Party can not be acting on his own, alone. That, you should know. He can never act on his own. The President (Buhari) is the leader of the party. What is wrong with that? Ahmed Lawan is a member of the party and he has served the party very well,” he said.
He added, “If the Chairman of the party had said that, it is the choice of the party and the choice of the party is the choice of the President. He (Adamu) would come up with an official statement.”
Asked if it is in the place of the National Chairman to announce a consensus candidate for the primaries, Kalu simply said the Chairman of the party is the head of the party.
“All we are trying to say is that the party is supreme. Supremacy of the party lies in the hands of the National Chairman. It doesn’t lie outside the party. It’s inside the party,” he said.
Kalu acknowledged that Abdullai Adamu is an experienced and credible man.
While trying to shed light on the meeting that preceded the controversial announcement, he said, “They had NWC meeting and the NWC on their wisdom from the consultation that had been made selected Ahmed Lawan as a consensus candidate.”
He stated that people in the NWC (National Working Committee) of the APC confirmed the development to him.
Kalu did not agree that there was a disagreement in the meeting on the choice of Lawan, rather he said, “No No, one or two people out of 23 just said no, but the majority had their way.”
According to reports, there were attempts by the press to speak to Adamu at the APC secretariat in Abuja, but the Chairman would not speak as he angrily walked away and drove out of the secretariat.
Meanwhile, there has been no response yet from the APC to confirm whether what Adamu had said was official or it was just a rumour.
Since he withdrew from the presidential race, Kalu has been rooting and rallying support for Lawan, whom he vouched, has all the capacity to be the next president of the nation.
Recall Kalu, had on a national TV, said he would be willing to take a job of sweeper in the Aso Villa, should the President of the Senate be elected Nigeria’s next President in 2023.
