Indirect Primaries In APC Will Turn Into Dollar Bazaar - Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba

 

A former Minister of State for Education and presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, in this interview with DEBORAH TOLU-KOLAWOLE speaks on the clamour for a president from the South-East and the APC presidential primary

What mode of presidential primaries will you prefer? Consensus, indirect or direct primaries?

Anyone the party chooses to go after. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages.

If you bring delegates together and you tell them to embrace an indirect primary, Abuja will be turned into a dollar bazaar because people will try to get as much voting power with lots of resources. If you look at what happened with the train attack, some of the delegates who were going back to their states were attacked maybe because the bandits thought that many of the people who were in the train were returning from the convention and were loaded with dollars.

Similarly, because of the timeline given by INEC, the party may not be able to conduct direct primaries. Also, the idea of consensus may not be accepted by everyone.

But I know that the NWC is working towards the best mode of primaries that will avoid rancour, loss of lives, and disintegration.


We have not seen you doing nationwide consultations with delegates like Tinubu, Osinbajo and Amaechi. What then is your strategy?

It is very clear that people have different approaches to things and my mother taught us something before you make garri you look at the size of the soup so you will know if the soup will be enough for the garri. I have not had the luxury of former governors who own jets and controlled state resources at some points. It is acceptable for people who have those forms of resources to throw them around.

However, we have been working with delegates who will vote at the convention. In every state, we have a local working committee known as the LWC made up of people who are interested in our campaigns and they have been engaging with our delegates.