Buhari told us who he wants as APC chairman - El-Rufai

Kaduna state Governor, Nasiru El-Rufai, said that President Muhammadu Buhari, has confided in him and some other governors regarding his preferred choice for the All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairmanship position.

Speaking on a Channels Television program (Politics Today) monitored by this writer on Wednesday, March 9, 2022, the governor said Buhari has now decided to be fully involved in the internal affairs of the party.

The APC has scheduled its National Convention for Saturday, March 6, 2022, this is after the convention had failed to hold on February 26 as earlier announced.

Recall that on Monday, March 7, 2022, Niger State Governor, Abubakar Sani Bello, assumed the position of the acting chairman of the Caretaker Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the party.

This was as reports stated that Buhari had booted out the substantive chairman of the CECPC, Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe state.

Some party members have accused Buni of plotting with some elements to put the scheduled primary in jeopardy in order to realise their hatched plans.

On assuming office on Monday, Bello quickly rallied the members and a list containing the zoning of the party executives has been released.

Commenting on the development, El-Rufai explained how he and some other governors convinced Buhari to intervene in the affairs of the party.

He said he and his colleagues met with the president to seek his counselling regarding the forthcoming convention of the party.

El-Rufai explained how the governors were able to persuade Buhari to chose his preferred candidate amongst all the aspirants.

"The president was reluctant to even nominate who is going to be the chairman of the party because he said, you know, I'm not contesting, I want to hand over this party to a strong leadership to ensure it continues. So I'm not interested in who's the party chairman unlike in 2019 when I was contesting."

"But we said Mr President, all of us are state governors, we have an influence on who is the state chairman of the party, so it's only sensible and logical for us to give you the opportunity to guide us on who you think we should support as the national chairman. We forced him literally, he didn't want to do it."

Although the governor refused to mention the name of the anointed candidate, he insisted that he is from the North Central region of the country.

He did, I'm not allowed to reveal but he has told us who he prefers as the Chairman of the party because the tradition of the APC is that the president decides on who he's most comfortable with as the chairman of the party and we try to achieve consensus around that person.

It's been reported that Buhari has endorsed Senator Abdullahi Adamu from Nasarawa state as his preferred choice for the chairmanship position.

Other aspirants jostling for the position include former Borno state governor, Ali-Modu Sheriff, former Benue governor, George Akume, Senator Musa Abdullahi, and Senator Tanko Al-Makura.