The All Progressives Congress presidential screening committee led by Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu on Tuesday began the screening of it’s five presidential aspirants with the publisher of Leadership Newspaper, Sam Nda-Isaiah.
Addressing reporters before the commencement of the exercise, Onu said the committee would not spare any effort in ensuring that only aspirants considered fit and proper, were presented during the forth coming convention.
The chairman also said, each of the aspirants would be required to sign an undertaking to abide by the party’s guidelines and commit to supporting the eventual winner of ticket even if they loose the contest.
According to him, each of them will also be required to collapse their individual platforms into the larger party platform whether they win or lose.
“In screening our aspirants, we will take into consideration the Constitution of our party, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the Electoral Act 2010. We would be doing something that is novel in our country because we want to really effect change.
“We will attach a lot of importance to the manifesto of the party, we would like to know how ready our aspirants are to the urging needs of the nation in the areas of security, the economy, job creation, foriegn policy and corruption.”
He also said successful aspirants will be presented with their certificates of clearance to contest the primaries at the end of the exercise on Wednesday.
At the end of his screening, Nda- Isaiah expressed confidence about his chances and described the exercise as the biggest job interview in the nation.
“If you go for an examination, you know whether you passed or you failed. I passed. We are not like the other party that printed just one form. This shows you how serious our party is,” he said.
Nda- Isaiah promised to tackle corruption and rebuild the confidence of Nigerians in one another.
He said it was sad that Nigerians are today more divided than any other time in recent memory adding that no meaningful development can take place in a nation where it’s component units are so divided.
Members of the screening committee include: Ahmed Jidda, Senator Abubakar Saraki, Dr. Sam Sam Jaja, Bisi Abayomi, Prof. Dannis Abolapo, Tom Maiyaki and Ambassador Fatima Balla.
