APC begins screening of five presidential aspirants

The All Progressives Congress on Tuesday commenced
the screening of its five presidential aspirants.
Those to be screened are the Publisher of The Leadership
newspaper, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah; Kano State
Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Imo State
Governor Rochas Okorocha, former Vice President
Atiku Abubakar and former Head of State, Maj.-Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).
Nda-Isaiah was the first to appear before the Dr.
Ogbonnaya Onu-led eight member committee at the
party’s national headquarters in Abuja.
Addressing reporters before the commencement of the
exercise, Onu said the committee would not spare any
effort in ensuring that only aspirants considered fit and
proper would be presented during the forthcoming
convention.
He said that each of the aspirants would be required to
sign an undertaking to abide by the party’s guidelines and to
support the eventual winner of the ticket.
Onu said, “In screening our aspirants, we will take into
consideration the constitution of our party, the Constitution
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the Electoral
Act 2010. We would be doing something that is novel in
our country because we want to really effect change.
“We will attach a lot of importance to the manifesto of the
party; we will like to know how ready our aspirants are
to attend to the urgent needs of the nation in the areas of
security, the economy, job creation, foreign policy and
corruption.”
He also said successful aspirants would be presented with
their certificates of clearance to contest the primaries at the
end of the exercise on Wednesday (today).
At the end of his screening, Nda- Isaiah expressed
confidence about his chances. He described the exercise as
the biggest job interview in the nation.
“If you go for an examination, you know whether you
passed or you failed. I passed. We are not like the other
party that printed just one form. This shows you how
serious our party is,” he said.
Nda- Isaiah promised to tackle corruption and rebuild the
confidence of Nigerians in one another. He said it was
sad that Nigerians were now more divided than at any
other time in the recent history of the nation, adding that
no meaningful development could take place in a disunited
nation.
Members of the APC screening committee include Ahmed
Jidda, Senator Abubakar Saraki, Dr. Sam Jaja, Bisi
Abayomi, Prof. Dannis Abolapo, Tom Maiyaki and
Ambassador Fatima Balla.