APC Presidential Candidacy: The Battle of 2 - Atiku Vs Buhari

Permutations on the outcome of the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential primaries are increasingly narrowing into a two-horse race in what is being dubbed as a contest of brain and brawn between former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and erstwhile head of state, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

Buhari, last Thursday, at a closed door ceremony in Abuja, inaugurated 37 state committees to guide the campaign in the 36 states and Abuja, at a function a source said was like the release of a bull to suppress what was described as the money plans of Atiku to prise the ticket to himself.

BUHARI DECLARES: General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) declaring his intention to seek the All Progressives Congress, APC, nomination to contest next year's presidential election yesterday.

Sources close to the two aspirants told Sunday Vanguard that it was now openly being acknowledged by strategists of the two men that the contest would be a straight fight between the two camps. Not surprisingly, the strategists are increasingly turning fire on one another in a bid to decimate the potentials of one another.

Besides Buhari and Atiku, other contestants for the APC presidential ticket include Governor Rabiu Kwankwanso of Kano State, newspaper mogul, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State and Governor Rochas Okorocha.

Meanwhile, in a development that was, at the weekend, being seen as a factor that may influence the presidential primary, sources in the national leadership of the opposition political party disclosed a consensus to adopt a Modified Presidential Primary System for the election of the presidential candidate.

It is a major setback for the Buhari camp which had been canvassing for the use of direct primary that would allow all party members to be involved in the selection of the candidate.

The Buhari camp had advocated the use of consensus in which they advocated the selection of their man or in the alternative the use of the direct primary in the belief that involving all party members would limit the influence of money, a factor they claim Atiku could easily use to overwhelm Buhari.

In a development that is even bound to raise concern in the Buhari camp, Sunday Vanguard learnt that party bureaucrats are pushing to cut down on the 20,000 delegates earlier proposed to attend the Abuja presidential nomination convention in November.

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