2019: Why I rejected PACT’s consensus presidential candidate – Moghalu
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Some hours after presidential aspirant of the Alliance for a New Nigeria (ANN), Fela Durotoye was unanimously elected as the consensus candidate of the Presidential Aspirants Coming Together (PACT), presidential aspirant of the Young Progressive Congress (YPP), Kingsley Moghalu, rejected the pact.
Durotoye, 47, will be flying the flag of Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) on behalf of 10 other aspirants in the 2019 general election.
The election was monitored and observed by Oby Ezekwezili, Nigeria’s former Minister of Education, who described the process as transparent and credible.
In a statement issued by the Kingsley Moghalu Support Organisation (KMSO), the former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said “I am firmly in the race for President of Nigeria in 2019.”
He urged all his presidential support groups to continue with his ambition to become president in 2019. He said: “This is despite the arrangement for a consensus candidate among the young presidential aspirants under the aegis of Presidential Aspirants Coming Together (PACT), which today (Thursday) produced an outcome that has left many Nigerians expressing surprise and disappointment.”
Moghalu reeled out reasons he disagreed and pulled out of the PACT arrangement as follows:
“The arrangement had unravelled even before the final selection of the consensus candidate. Only seven aspirants participated in the final voting out of the original 18 aspirants, mainly because many of the aspirants had withdrawn from the process. Four candidates who were present in the meeting this morning withdrew from the process even while the voting process was ongoing. Therefore, PACT did not produce a truly consensus candidate.
“Clause 13 of the PACT Memorandum of Understanding asserts the supremacy of the constitutional rights of the aspirants to pursue their political aspirations.
“I therefore have chosen to continue without distraction to pursue my vision in the presidential race for 2019 in the national interest and in deference to the overwhelming outpouring of support for my candidacy from all parts of Nigeria.
“I will remain focused on the objective of providing a competent leadership that will help unite our country and build a nation, wage a decisive war against poverty and unemployment, and restore respect for Nigeria in the society of nations. It is my humble and well-considered view that the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria requires competence and experience in these three vital areas.
Speaking to BusinessDay on Friday, the National Chairman of the Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party National (ANRP), Tope Kolade Fasua, who is also contesting the presidency, disagreed with the process that produced Durotoye, describing it as “shambolic” even as he urged Moghalu to continue pursuing his ambition.
“I told them to expand it and also have an open debate but they did not take that route and I told them that it is too early and no need rushing it but they wanted to rush it so I left them.
“I wonder why Kingsley will walk into such a soccer punch but I have called him to continue to pursue his ambition,” he said.
But speaking to BusinessDay on Friday, one of the contestants to the PACT, and a presidential aspirant of the Alliance for New Nigeria, Elishama Ideh, said that the process that produced Durotoye as the consensus candidate was free and fair adding that she had to accept it
“I was there, the election was free and fair among us that elected ourselves. Any person or people going out to say otherwise is because they lost out,” she said.
Innocent Odoh, Abuja