With the latest decision of the National Working Committee, NWC, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, to allow ad-hoc delegates to elect the presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, one of the foremost presidential aspirants, may be on the verge of losing out in the race.
Disclosing the new development, Chairman of the Kebbi state Screening Appeals Committee and Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria, VON, Osita Okechukwu, said; “three delegates would be elected from each of the nation’s 774 local government areas and six Area Councils of the FCT, Abuja making 2,340 delegates in total.”
The refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the Electoral Act amendment bill that would have permitted statutory delegates to vote, is a major determinant of the altercation of the voting strengths of some States including Lagos.
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Lagos, which has one of the largest number of statutory delegates due to its large number of APC public officials, will now be left with 60 delegates because it has just 20 local government areas.
Recall that Lagos, which had 304 delegates, was in the top five only behind Kano, Katsina, Borno, and Osun. As it stands, Lagos is now 19th on the list with only 60 delegates.
Also, states that have low APC membership or that are governed by the Peoples Democratic Party but have a large number of local governments, will now have an advantage over Lagos.
For instance, Akwa Ibom which has 31 LGAs, Oyo (33 LGAs) and Rivers and Sokoto both having 23 LGAs each, will now have more delegates at the presidential primary than Lagos, according to PUNCH report.
However, Kano, Katsina, and Osun retained their lead by virtue of the large number of local government areas that they possess. Kano, which has 44 LGAs will have 132 delegates while Katsina with 34 LGAs will have 102 elected delegates. This also applies to Osun State which has 30 LGAs and will thus have 90 delegates.
Based on the foregoing, the chances of Bola Tinubu clinching the party’s ticket are now much more difficult as the new delegates template seems to favour northern candidates.