The Former Presidential aspirants of the All Progressive Congress, APC, failed to attend a meeting in Abuja on Wednesday.
The postponement of the meeting was announced a few hours before its commencement.
It was gathered that the meeting was canceled because of the non-commitment of the aspirants, many of whom had indicated that they would not be available.
Among those expected were Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; former Science and Technology Minister, Ogbonnaya Onu; former Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba and former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio.
Five serving governors, namely Yahaya Bello (Kogi), Dave Umahi (Ebonyi), Abubakar Badaru (Jigawa), Ben Ayade (Cross River) and Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti) were also expected.
Others were the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan; former Ogun State governor and serving senator, Ibikunle Amosun; a serving senator, Ajayi Boroffice; former Zamfara governor, Ahmad Sani; former Imo State governor and serving senator, Rochas Okorocha; a former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole; fiery cleric, Tunde Bakare; Pastor and Businessman, Dr. Nicolas Felix; former Information Minister, Ikeobasi Mokelu; Businessman, Tein Jack-Rich and the only female among them, Uju Ken-Ohanenye.
It was reported that the aspirants were scheduled to meet by 2:00 p.m. at Transcorp Hilton on Wednesday to brainstorm and come up with viable strategies to support the presidential candidate of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
One of the former aspirants, Dr. Nicolas Felix, in a statement on Monday, said those who contested against the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu at the presidential primary, would converge on Abuja at 2 pm on Wednesday.
Felix said, “We will also brainstorm on adopting winning campaign strategies to support our standard-bearer, Bola Tinubu, and seek to carry every Nigerian along in our bid to coast home to victory in the 2023 general elections.”
But before the meeting was scheduled to start, Felix announced its postponement, stating that a new date would be announced. He, however, did not give the reason for the cancellation of the roundtable.
Felix’s statement read, “Please be informed that the strategic meeting of 2023 Presidential Aspirants of the All Progressives Congress, scheduled to hold on Wednesday the 31st of August has been postponed.
“A new date for the meeting will be communicated soon. Apologies for any inconvenience(s) that this might cause.”
The aborted meeting sought to address a number of factors such as a conciliatory move to reconcile aggrieved members, challenges bedeviling the country, inclusive politics, and adoption of winning campaign strategies to coast home to victory ahead of the 2023 general elections.
But a source within the party, who was privy to the development, told newsmen that aside from Felix, no other aspirant was interested in the meeting.
According to him, the majority of the former aspirants were still in shock that the former Lagos Governor won the June 8 primary election.
He said, “I can confidently tell you that over 19 of them are not ready to work with Asiwaju to win the 2023 election. How many of them have you seen talking about Tinubu?
“The election didn’t go as expected and some of us are still in shock. Having a strategy to sell our candidate is a major issue.”
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