Going by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) directive that parties conduct primaries in September, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) will have to make a choice on who among the aspirants will fly the flag of the party in the December governorship elections.
Professor Obaje was the party’s flagbearer in the botched April elections and he has been telling the whole world that he is still the party’s candidate for the December elections but competent sources within the party told us that there will be fresh primaries next month.
What is yet to be seen is how Prof. Yusuf Obaje will defeat Prince Abubakar Audu in the upcoming ACN governorship primaries. The presence of Tinubu and other ACN principalities at the well attended ceremony where the Ogbonicha-born political warlord officially decamped to ACN shows the party’s preference for Audu.
If ACN adopts the same system that produced her governorship candidates in the last elections then Obaje is a goner. The party did not organise elective primaries for their governorship candidates in the April 2011 elections, rather, the party chiefs selected politicians they feel can win.
In the event that Kogi ACN decide to embark on elective primaries, Obaje should have the upper hand having been in the party long before Audu joined. Obaje will definately command more followership among ACN faithfuls in Kogi State.
