Lawan joins presidential race as reported by Saturday Sun 

As reported by Saturday Sun on April 30, 2022, the Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, has joined the presidential race on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), purchasing the N100 million expression of interest and nomination forms in Abuja.
Saturday Sun had reported that Lawan would join the presidential race after the last sallah holiday, having been picked by northern elders to preferred aspirant.

To purchase the forms yesterday, on behalf of Lawan, APC chieftain, Chief Sam Nkire, who stormed the International Conference Centre, Abuja, venue for the sale of forms in the company of some senators, said that they were supporting the Senate President for national stability.
“Beside and behind me are Senators and senior businessmen and politicians who are members of the APC and some other Nigerians who want a new president. The new president they want is Ahmad Lawan, the current president of the Senate of Nigeria,” he said.
On why they want the current Senate President to be the president, he said: “We want him to be president because of national stability. The president that we are bringing for the Nigerian people is a Nigerian president, not an Igbo president, not a Fulani president, not a Yoruba president. But a Nigerian president who we have watched and seen that there would be no other candidate that will be so level-headed and feeling for the poor Nigerians.”
Asked if Lawan has heeded the call to serve in the capacity, he said: “We are not here on our own, we have his backing. Even though friends and brothers contributed to purchase this form for him, he has given us the go-ahead.”
On whether the party’s zoning arrangement is no longer standing, he said: “Let me tell you, you’re a journalist, not a politician. Every politician is in politics to win. It is PDP that is driving us to do this. We have to say so. But we don’t want PDP to take the government from us. If you give the position to a Southerner and PDP gives to a Northerner, APC will go into the wilderness and we are not ready to go into the wilderness.”
Saturday Sun had reported that northern elders who have sympathy for APC had picked Lawan to run as the zone’s consensus aspirant, as a challenge to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which has thrown open its presidential ticket for all zones in the country.

Afraid that PDP may pick a Northern candidate and have an edge over APC, which was planning to pick a Southerner candidate, the Northern elders decided to draft in Lawan into the presidential race.