The consensus arrangement the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has always used in electing its leaders may not sail through this time. Two chieftains of the party, Fouad Oki and Mustapha Dabiri, all major forces in the party, have said they would be vying for the party’s chairmanship position.
A report by Daily Trust indicates that the decision of the two chieftains to contest the chairmanship position is unsettling the party because it goes against the interest of the party’s godfather in Lagos, Bola Tinubu, who wants Tunde Balogun retained as the party’s chairman.
Oki is the leader of the Lagos APC Democrats, a pressure group within the APC in Lagos that opposes the leadership style of Tinubu.
According to Daily Trust, quoting Oki, the planned consensus was not agreed upon by the generality of members of the party, hence his decision to contest.
He said: “If there are five tendencies which the national secretariat has recognised if you want to do a consensus, with who? Maybe in their own imagination.
“If you are doing consensus, who are you doing consensus with? How many tendencies are in Lagos? You must have sat down with some people, who are the people? Is it the same usual lies?
“What of other people, are they not members of the APC? It is the GAC faction, let them tell us exactly who and who they met with.
“We have done two congresses, was there any acceptable consensus at those congresses?
“Let them say who they are doing consensus with. There are several tendencies or factions in Lagos. Maybe they are doing consensus among themselves in their tendencies?”