The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed June 17, 2022 as deadline for the submission of list of presidential candidates and their running mates by political parties.
The apex electoral body warned that the dedicated portal for the submission of list of candidates for national elections will automatically shut down at 6.00pm on Friday, June 17.
However, for governorship and House of Assembly elections, the list of candidates shall be uploaded from 1st to 15th July, 2022.
Professor Mahmood Yakubu, made this known during a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC) in Abuja on Thursday, June 9.
Aa the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, meets with party leaders, including the National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, to pick a running mate, his counterpart in the Peoples Democratic Party, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, on Wednesday began the search for his running mates.
According to the spokesman for the Tinubu Campaign Organisation, Mr Bayo Onanuga, the APC presidential candidate would meet the APC governors.
It was also gathered that Tinubu would meet party leaders, including the National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, before the end of the week.
As Tinubu began the search for his running mate, Atiku on Wednesday held a closed-door meeting with the PDP governors in Abuja with a view to picking the party’s vice presidential candidate.
At the APC presidential primary, which started on Tuesday and was rounded off on Wednesday, Tinubu garnered 1,271 votes to clinch the party’s presidential ticket.
Bola Tinubu and APC governors
The Chairman of the Convention Election Management Committee, Governor Abubakar Bagudu of Kebbi State, at Eagle Square, Abuja announced that a former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, got 316 votes; the Vice-President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, 235 votes; a former Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, one vote; Senator Rochas Okorocha and Pastor Tunde Bakare got zero vote each.
On Monday, northern governors had insisted on power shift to the South despite the national chairman’s endorsement of the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, from the North-East, as the party’s consensus candidate.
Tinubu, in his acceptance speech after his victory, said those who did not support him should not be afraid.
He further said, “Our teeming youth population is our nation’s greatest asset. We will create jobs for our youth from the Zamfara and Osun gold deposits to the vast agricultural lands across the country. We will create new opportunities in the Fintech sector, the creative and entertainment industries, digital skills and other areas.”
But there were strong indications on Wednesday that both Tinubu and Atiku had started searching for their running mates ahead of the Independent National Electoral Commission’s June 17 deadline for parties to submit their candidates’ lists.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that Onanuga said Tinubu already had an arrangement with the APC governors that if he emerged the candidate of the party, the governors would decide the person to pick.
According to him, Tinubu prefers a collective responsibility than doing it on his own.
The spokesman stated, “The Vice-President can come from any region and religion. But the PGF is at liberty to pick. Up till now, we are all aware that Atiku has not chosen a VP. Yet he was elected before him. But in our own case, it is a party affair.
“The party leaders will look at the chances and decide how they will balance a Muslim from the South, maybe with somebody that comes from North- East, North-Central or from North-West. That is how it is done. I cannot circumvent the party. The Governor Atiku Bagudu-led PGF has the task to pick a competent deputy for him,” he said.
Asked when Tinubu might likely meet with the governors, Onanuga stressed that though a date had not been chosen, it would not take long.
“Already, he has a cordial relationship with virtually all of them. You will also have to understand that he has just picked the presidential ticket. I am also sure that this issue of picking the right candidate for VP will be in the minds of the party leadership and the APC governors too.
“At this moment, we just want to pause and take a rest from the stress of the just-concluded campaign.”
Elder statesman and the Leader of Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark on Friday said that southern politicians have been warned not to accept running mate positions from any northern candidate if the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) refuse to zone the presidency to the south.
TheNewsGuru.com, (TNG) reports the South-South leader revealed this while interacting with journalists, saying any southern politician that accepts such a position would be regarded as unpatriotic.
Clark said: “We strongly warn our politicians, former governors, ministers, senators and so forth not to accept a running mate position from any northern candidate because they cannot do with us and we cannot do without them.
“That will show how serious we are and anybody who offers himself as a running mate will be regarded as the most unpatriotic and a man who has sold his own side of the country and not worthy of being respected and honoured.”
He also described the growing number of presidential aspirants from the southern part of the country as madness and unrealistic.
He said most of the aspirants from the south that have declared interest to contest for president in 2023 are playing double games.
Clark wondered where aspirants from the ruling APC were getting N100 million to pay for the forms considering the level of hunger in the country.
He stated: “It is madness. if I’m to be realistic they are not serious; particularly the southerners from the South-West and the South-South. There are some people that have gone to be bottle bags to play double games. So when it comes to where we say no, some people would come out to say yes we are contesting. So they know why some of them are there.
“You have everybody in Nigeria where there is hunger, where there is lack of employment, where there is kidnapping going on every day, where children cannot go to school, where the economy is going down, these people were able to mobilize N100 million to pick form.
