The Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, said he prefers competition against consensus selection in the upcoming All Progressives Congress presidential primary.
The former Minister of Solid Minerals said this during an interview with Arise TV earlier Thursday.
Earlier, the party National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, said the consensus arrangement used in selecting officers of the party during its convention on March 26, 2022, may not work in the party’s presidential primary election.
Reacting to the consensus agitation by some members of the party, Fayemi said consensus is not anti-democratic except by the means deployed in its execution.
He said, ”I don’t necessarily think the consensus is undemocratic. A consensus is not antithetical to democracy, I think it is the process through which you arrive at a consensus, that we should put into consideration.
”But if you want to talk about party constitution, a consensus is provided for in the APC constitution, direct election of all member is also provided and indirect election of delegate is provided, so you have three options.
”The new Electoral Act has introducees another dimension to consensus if the party eventually decides to go consensus and that is all competing aspirants must submerge their ambition to that of the person that has been chosen as the consensus candidate.
”Once you get the buy-in of all aspirants, and they agree on one person to be the one representing the party, there is nothing anti-democracy about that; it’s just the will of the members.
“However, I would prefer for us to have a competition that would allow members of the party to examine the competition vision.”
