Former Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, has described the Presidential primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as “the product of careful planning” which will bind party members together through its openness and transparency.
Appearing as a guest on Sunrise Daily, Fayemi responded to critics who had lambasted the party for the pro-longed primary which had lasted for 24 hours and also stressed that although the five candidates contesting for the party’s presidential ticket were important, the process itself was important.
“For us, the process is as important as the product that eventually emerges from this because Nigerians are carefully watching us” to see if we are going to be the same or the new party for the new Nigeria, he said.
“We envisaged that we were going to spend a considerable length of time to undertake this exercise” he said concerning the prolonged primary, noting that “we believe that we are going to be much stronger for it and the party will be more united after this, because the process has been transparent”.
According to him, the time the process had taken was not a surprise as 8,000 delegates had to participate in the process for a winner to emerge. He highlighted the different stages of the process, including accreditation of delegates and the actual voting.
The process has been reported as peaceful, except for a skirmish involving delegates from Delta State during accreditation.
“That was resolved amicably and voting continued in due course”.
Speaking on allegations that some candidates had been asked to rest their ambition for the others, Fayemi insisted that no candidate was more important than the other as the party had agreed that if a consensus candidate was to emerge, the candidates themselves would be the ones to make the call.
