News Report: Nigerians Await North's Consensus Candidate

Adamu Ciroma: Selection Committee Chairman

Nigerians await the announcement of Northern Nigeria's consensus candidate in the forthcoming 2011 presidential election. Indications strongly point to Monday 22nd or Tuesday 23rd of November, 2010 as possible dates for the announcement.

A selection committee led by Mr. Adamu Ciroma was constituted to screen candidates amongst the Peoples Democratic Party's(PDP) four Northern presidential aspirants namely; Ibrahim Babangida, Atiku Abubakar, Aliyu Gusau and Bukola Saraki.

The Adamu Ciroma selection committee is working for the Northern Political Leaderhip Forum(NPLF), a body which insists that it is the right of the North to occupy the Presidency till 2015, going by the ruling PDP zoning policy.

The selection committee was reported to have secured  commitments from the aspirants to abide by the committee's decision. "If a consensus candidate emerges, other aspirants would be expected to deploy their platforms for his benefit", a contact close a committee member told chidi opara reports.

We could not get information regarding who the candidate would be, as contacts close to members of the selection committee informed of difficulties in extracting information in this regard.

Checks in the campaign organizations of the four aspirants however indicated optimism.

chidi opara reports learnt that members of the committee are presently lodged at a guest house in Kaduna, capital city of Kaduna state, preparatory to the announcement.