PRESIDENTIAL ASPIRANTS LAMENT COLLAPSE OF COALITION AGAINST BUHARI PRESIDENTIAL ASPIRANT LAMENT COLLAPSE OF COALITION AGAINST BUHARI

Young presidential aspirants, who recently agreed to produce a consensus candidate that will challenge the second-term bid of President Muhammadu Buhari next year, have lamented the collapse of the arrangement.

The dream of the 13 young politicians, under the auspices of Presidential Aspirants Coming Together, to oust Buhari, ended abruptly last week in Abuja when leading members of the group withdrew.

The convener of PACT, Dr. Thomas Wilson-Ikubese, nevertheless said on Thursday that Fela Durotoye, actually emerged as the consensus candidate after a mock election held in Abuja.

He lamented that several of the aspirants expressed their grievances at various stages of the process.

According to him, one of the aspirants, Omoyele Sowore, pulled out of the arrangement because members of PACT did not support the two protests he co-organised in Abuja due to certain reasons.

Others, who pulled out, according to Wilson-Ikubese, were Ahmed Buhari, Awwal Abubakar, Alkali Abdullahi, Dr. Felix Nicholas and Prof. Kingsley Moghalu.

He explained that some of aspirants, who pulled out of the coalition, expressed disappointment with the leadership of the group for not zoning the consensus presidential candidate to the North.

He said,

“They (aspirants) said it was the turn of the North and since it was not going to the North (automatically), they pulled out. Meanwhile, this was discussed at the level of PACT and we resolved that excellence should be the basis for our voting.

“In the new Nigeria that we seek, anybody from any part of the country can become anything, irrespective of where he or she comes from.

“Prof Kingsley Moghalu was there from the beginning to the end. He participated in the first and second rounds. He hugged Durotoye and congratulated him after the result was announced in the hall.”

Another presidential aspirant, Tope Adefemiwa, an aspirant on the platform of Kowa Party, also lamented the decision of the four aggrieved aspirants to pull out, arguing that it had affected the strength of the coalition.