From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

The headquarters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is enveloped in anxiety and confusion, as members, aspirants and the national leadership of the party are still in the dark over the modalities of the forthcoming party primary few days to the scheduled dates.

A highly placed member of the APC told Daily Sun that while the presidency favours a consensus arrangement, many of the aspirants are insisting  the primary must be settled in a free and fair open competitive process.

He said though the presidential aspirants have continued to carry on with their campaigns and consultations, speculations are rife that the resolution by President Muhammadu Buhari to adopt a consensus arrangement may have contributed in unsettling the party.

Our source argued that it is apparent that Buhari must have settled for a consensus candidate, stressing: “you know that the leadership of the party is only there but Buhari dictates proceedings in the party, especially as it concerns picking the presidential candidate.”

“Where is it done that less than 24 hours to major primary, a serious party didn’t set up committees to undertake such sensitive exercise. It is obvious that Mr. President must have told the party leadership of settling for a consensus arrangement.

“I even heard that the presidency have started reaching out to the presidential aspirants to settle for consensus. Mark my word, APC will only hold primaries for formalities not to elect the candidate of the party.”

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The presidency, he said, is wary of the ripple effects the imposition of a candidate on the party could have on APC and is careful in pushing its wish down the throats of members.

He said the repeated adjustments of the timetable and schedule of activities for the various primaries were part of the efforts by the hierarchy of the party to manage the interests of aspirants and members before the exercise.

The screening of the presidential aspirants has not only suffered several postponements but also been suspended indefinitely even as nothing has been heard about the outcome of the screened governorship, national and state Assembly aspirants conducted over one week.

Although the national secretariat of the party has been a beehive of activities as aspirants, supporters and hangers on troop in and out for one activity or the other, no concrete information has been made available about the proposed primary commencing today.

It was learnt that the composition of various committees to carry out some activities during the primary has either been put on hold or suspended completely few days to the exercise.

For example, less than 24 hours to the proposed conduct of the governorship and state Assembly primaries, there has been no attempt to constitute the committees to undertake the responsibility.

The outcome of the recent meeting between the Progressive Governors’ Forum and President Buhari, still shrouded in secrecy, has equally contributed in complicating the situation.