Young candidates unable to agree on consensus candidate after Durotoye emerges winner of Pact elections

NEW generation Aso Rock aspirants have been unable to agree on a consensus candidate after a meeting of their umbrella body the Presidential Aspirants Coming Together (Pact) failed to resolve the thorny issue of a unity candidate.

With presidential elections due in February next year, there are 18 young, urbane, cosmopolitan and new candidates who are standing as independents. Not members of the two traditional parties the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) these young candidates got together to form an alliance known as Pact and yesterday they met to agree on fielding a consensus candidate.

At a meeting in Abuja yesterday monitored and observed by Oby Ezekwezili, Nigeria's former education minister 11 Pact candidates met and voted on a consensus candidate. After voting, Fela Durotoye of the Alliance for New Nigeria emerged victorious following a process Ms Ezekwesili described as transparent and credible.

Ms Ezekwesili said: " “Today, a group of presidential aspirants under the acronym of Pact came together and voted among themselves to decide their consensus candidate. They invited me to be an observer and I observed their process and reported the outcome of their votes.

"Pact used a two-staged voting process and ended with an outcome that had Fela Durotoye score four votes and Kingsley Moghalu three votes."

However, some of the other candidates have refused to accept the outcome, making it clear they will stand against Mr Durotoye. Sahara Reporters publisher Omoyele Sowore has already rejected the emergence of Mr Durotoye as the consensus candidate as has former Central bank of Nigeria governor Kingsley Moghalu.

Malcolm Fabiyi, the director-general of Mr Sowore's campaign organisation, denied participating in the straw poll. He described as undemocratic any system that will allow less than a dozen persons to determine who should run for the highest office in the land of about 200m citizens.

Dr Fabiyi said: “On Thursday, Pact selected a consensus candidate from amongst the aspirants who participated in the straw poll. The TakeItBack Movement and our convener, Omoyele Sowore, were not part of this action.

“Our position at the TakeItBack Movement has always been that a united front of progressive forces is essential for wresting power from the status quo politicians. We believe that our voices are stronger together and as we’ve stated previously, the successful cooperative struggle which several youth presidential aspirants participated in, to extend the voter registration exercise, clearly demonstrates the power of a united front.

“However, we have also been very clear in our position, that the choice of who becomes the leader of almost 200m Nigerians should not be determined by only about a dozen people, in a nation of 180m persons. As democrats and progressives, we believe that leaders should emerge, only through a transparent process that allows the millions of Nigerians that are yearning for national development and transformative leadership, to have their say in electing their own representatives, in free and fair party primaries and eventually at the national polls in February 2019."

Also rejecting the outcome, Professor Moghalu added that he is leaving Pact as a result of the election, implying that the process that led to Mr Durotoye’s emergence was flawed. He made it clear he would continue his quest to be Nigeria’s president on another platform.

Professor Mogalu said: “I am firmly in the race for President of Nigeria in 2019. I wish to inform members of my To Build A Nation movement, the Kingsley Moghalu Support Organisation nationwide, the Kingsley Moghalu Volunteer Force, Youth for Kingsley, Women for Kingsley, Kingsley Moghalu Disciples, the Young Progressive Party and my other supporters nationwide and in the diaspora that I am pressing ahead with my plan to contest the 2019 presidential election.

“This is despite the arrangement for a consensus candidate among the young presidential aspirants under the aegis of Pact, which today produced an outcome that has left many Nigerians expressing surprise and disappointment.

“The reasons I have pulled out of the Pact arrangement are as follows:

[1]  The arrangement had unravelled even before the final selection of the consensus candidate. Only seven aspirants participated in the final voting out of the original 18 aspirants, mainly because many of the aspirants had withdrawn from the process. Four candidates who were present in the meeting this morning withdrew from the process even while the voting process was ongoing. Therefore, Pact did not produce a true consensus candidate.

[2]  Clause 13 of the Pact Memorandum of Understanding asserts the supremacy of the constitutional rights of the aspirants to pursue their political aspirations.

“I therefore have chosen to continue without distraction to pursue my vision in the presidential race for 2019 in the national interest and in deference to the overwhelming outpouring of support for my candidacy from all parts of Nigeria. It is my humble and well-considered view that the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria requires competence and experience in these three vital areas."