2019: Presidential aspirants lament as coalition to sack Buhari collapses

Young presidential aspirants, who recently formed a coalition to produce a consensus candidate to sack President Muhammadu Buhari next year, have lamented the collapse of the arrangement.

The vision of the 13 young politicians, under the auspices of Presidential Aspirants Coming Together, PACT, to oust Buhari, died last week in Abuja when leading members of the group backed out.

The convener of PACT, Dr. Thomas Wilson-Ikubese, nevertheless told Punch that Fela Durotoye, actually emerged as the consensus candidate after a mock election held in Abuja.

He also revealed that several of the aspirants expressed their grievances at various stages of the process.

He said one of the aspirants, Omoyele Sowore, pulled out of the arrangement because members of PACT did not support the two protests he co-organised in Abuja due to certain reason.

Wilson-Ikubese said that others, who pulled out were Ahmed Buhari, Awwal Abubakar, Alkali Abdullahi, Dr. Felix Nicholas and Prof. Kingsley Moghalu.

He said, “They (aspirants) said it was the turn of the North and since it was not going to the North (automatically), they pulled out.

“Meanwhile, this was discussed at the level of PACT and we resolved that excellence should be the basis for our voting.

“In the new Nigeria that we seek, anybody from any part of the country can become anything, irrespective of where he or she comes from.

“Prof Kingsley Moghalu was there from the beginning to the end. He participated in the first and second rounds. He hugged Durotoye and congratulated him after the result was announced in the hall.”

Also lamenting the collapse, a presidential aspirant of the Young Democratic Party, Toye Akingbola, expressed disappointment with the disagreement among members of PACT.

He said, “I’m not a member of PACT but I am not unaware of what transpired. No matter how good a person is, no matter how fantastic these presidential aspirants are, there is only one seat and only one person can march out to give us the Presidency.

“For those who have pulled out because they felt that Fela Durotoye shouldn’t have been the one to come on board, they shouldn’t have because if you knew you were not going to accept defeat, why did you join PACT?”