 Welcome back. The President Mohammad Buhari met with the Governors of the All Progressives Congress on Tuesday ahead of the party's convention. The President's special advisor of media and publicity, Femi Adeshan, amid the outcome of the meeting known in a statement titled, We Must Show Positive Qualities of APC at our convention, President Buhari charges governance. Now, during the meeting held at a state house in Abuja, Buhari told the Governors that decisions that would enable the party retain power of the center should be taken. The meeting came amid speculations that the party of the President may anoint an aspirant before the convention. Buhari told the Governors in a 12 point statement that parties, quote, parties globally have always relied on their internal cohesion at a strong leadership brand to achieve bigger electoral fortunes. He said, quote, in pursuit of the foregoing objectives of the party has successfully established internal policies that promote continuity and smooth succession plans, even at the state and local government levels. Now, he went on to say, quote, for example, the first-term Governors who have served credibly well have been encouraged to stand for reelection. Similarly, second-term Governors have been accorded the privilege of promoting successes that are capable of driving their visions as well as the ideals of the party. The President continued, quote, as we approach the convention, I appeal to all of you to allow our interest converge, our focus to remain on the changing dynamics of our environment, the expectations of our citizens, and the global community. It's quite an interesting development, but what are the implications of this for the forthcoming APC presidential primary? We have joining us on the breakfast this morning to discuss this. Nick Agouli, who is a public affairs analyst. Nick Agouli, good morning to you. Good morning. Thank you for having me, and good morning to our viewers. Any surprises that the President had this meeting with the Governors of the APC and from what we hear is about to announce and possibly foist his choice, his anointed successor on the party? Well, he doesn't surprise me that the President had the meeting with the Governors under the platform of the APC because that is the right thing for him to do. As the President of the country, he is the most senior official, government official in the APC. So he is the rallying point of the APC, and so for him to call the Governors together so that they can strategize and have a game plan to win the 2022 election, if you know that. So I'm not surprised about that. But whether this meeting is the one at which the President expressed his views in terms of pointing out who he wants his successor to be is what is not the Republic domain. From the statement from the President's spokesman, that is no claim. It could have happened with a closed door, but all we can do as members of the public is to have our fingers crossed to see what the next seven days will hold for the APC. All right. There are claims from the reports that we have that the President has said to the Governors of the APC that the party has an internal mechanism or policy or a culture of allowing the Governors who have completed their terms, the two terms, select their successors, and that even goes down from his statement to the local government level. Is that what you found by your observation to be the case as far as the APC Governors in Nigeria are concerned? Yes. As they said, what is good for the groups is good for the ganda. So if the President expressed his opinion that Governors who are stepping up their terms should be giving the hands to anoint their successors, it will also be what he's thinking at the federal level. But I will say that for democracy, the President has to give room for democracy today, because when he says that the party members should come together to be progressive, this anointing of candidate is what actually makes that congressional. You see, when people are acquiring at either the Governorship of the presidential level or any level of election for that matter, and they see the process wrong in a very democratic way, in a transparent way, they are more accepting the results than rejecting it or contesting it. But when the Governor anoints his successor or a President anoints his successor, and the vast majority of the party members, including the aspirants, are more happy with the choice of successor, it becomes a problem for the party. So I will say that if the President is actually interested in achieving internal coercion within the APC, and for the APC to fill candidates that will engender a sense of victory in the people, in Nigeria and Rotorway, as the President is saying, this anointing of successor is a risk, and the President has to manage that very well. All right, as regards whether the President made this statement in this last meeting or in the previous meeting, we have a copy of the text of that meeting with the Progressive Governors Forum, and it's a 12 paragraph statement the President made or 12 paragraph speech he gave. And on the fifth paragraph he said that as I begin my final year of the final year of my second term as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and leader of the party, I recognize the compelling need for me to provide stronger leadership to the party under this transition process and to ensure that it happens in an orderly manner. He says in paragraph 6, such leadership is required so that the party remains strong and united. It is also needed to improve electoral fortunes by ensuring that it retains power at the center, hold a great majority of inverse legislative chambers and also gains additional numbers and state levels. So he goes on to talk about the culture of the party. He says in paragraph 9, as we approach the convention, I appeal to all of you to allow our interests converge, focus to remain on the changing dynamics of our environment, the expectations of our citizens and the global community, yada, yada, yada. And he talks about, you know, the consultation of the party and all that. So it seems that from this particular statement, he is talking about letting and allowing our interests converge and allowing, you know, me as the president, provide strong leadership for the party to enable us be at the top and at the center as far as governance in Nigeria is concerned. So I mean, this is, this may some will say is unambiguous from the president that he's saying, allow me choose my successor. By the president, it looks at creating a nebulous platform for him to have a in a, that's all. And then we have everything you said in the context of the PPC national system. You know, there were two of the people, one to the president, what they have, why the president has to stand behind Khaadurah Yadamu, he eventually will put an image. So if the influence platform in the party are to play out, the president is going to be able to do that. Over one, it is important to note that Nigeria, the one year. Mr. Jule, can you hear me, please? It seems to be having difficulty hearing you. If you're using your earpiece to talk to us, maybe a Bluetooth device, please do well to detach it because it seems to be affecting the quality of your audio. Can you hear me, sir? Okay. All right. We'll have to call you back in a matter of just a second. So please stand by your phone so we can place that call to you and we'll continue the conversation once we do that. All right. We're also trying to reestablish contact with our guest. Let's just go over the president's speech one more time before he comes back. But we also would like to inform the governors after meeting with the president had their own meeting as well. One of the governors told the reporters who were waiting to hear from them and that the members of the Progressive Governors Forum could not agree on how to implement the president's request. This is what he was quoted as saying, quote, we believe the president has not settled for any particular person. Of course, he didn't give them a name. And that is why some governors felt the best thing to do was to nominate two of us, one each from the north and south to the president for consideration. They want to nominate two of them, two governors, one each from the north and one from the south to the president for consideration. This is according to a source who was part of that meeting. The source said many northern governors, however, argue that no southern governor could defeat Tico Abu Bakar, who is a PDP presidential candidate in the presidential election. So the north should be given the preference. Here we go again. Now, according to the source, this is quoted by premium times. I need to state that clearly. The source that they are citing said that this stance of the northern progressive governors or the northern APC governors angered their southern counterparts. They were angry and furious if that doubt. It says that some of the southern governors also argued that nominees that do not have, the nominees do not have to be state governors, the ones that they should pitch to the president. This position is believed to have been pushed by governor's loyalty to some southern presidential candidates such as Vice President Yamio Shiba Joe and former legacy governor Bola Admitino. Now, since the governors could not agree, they resolved to end the meeting and reconvene at 8 p.m., which they did. Do we have Nick Agole back on the line? Yes, I am here. All right. So Nick, I'm sure you had that report from premium times regarding the initial, the first meeting the governors had after meeting the president and this idea of pitching one governor from the north and one governor from the south and suggesting those names to the president, and then the northern governors say no. There is no candidate from the south who can match the power and the pedigree of Artigo Abu Bakar. What are your thoughts on this? Well, I would say that the game matchup, the game matchup for the 2022 election is playing out. The ability to play a waiting game on the PDP to see where the PDP will pitch their presidential candidate. And it has a mention of the pitch that is in the north through Artigo Abu Bakar. Now, the APC can go either of two ways. The first way is to match the PDP by picking a northern presidential candidate or the APC can decide to pick a candidate from the south. Hoping that they will be able to get other votes and then be able to pick some of the northern votes. So these games are going to be fully played out in the next one week when we know where the APC has gone. But if the APC, let's also look at the scenario of the APC picking a northern candidate. If we look at the APC presidential asylum still done, I think the strongest northern candidate is the cabinet president. So let's also say the APC decides to go with the cabinet president. Of course, what is good happening is that both the cabinet president and Artigo Abu Bakar will pick the northern votes. It will then become able to take the majority of the southern votes that is going to carry the candidate. That's one scenario. Let's also look at the presidential candidate. Let's say they go with Osibah, or any of those votes. What will happen is, I think Abu Bakar, the majority of the votes, that alone gives him the presidential vote. Because what is the value of Larry was for three electoral votes. He was picking other votes, but he was not, because you can't win with him. President Abu Larry was able to get this vote. That is what made him. So if I take the vote at two and a half weeks, it substrates you, it's in the south, it's three percent, probably we're looking for a connection where one of the candidates would have a clip. This is what is going to be out. We're still having problems with that connection, but let's see if we can push a few more questions through. Are you saying that the APC cannot defeat the PDP if they don't select or elect a southern presidential candidate? So if they go for, say, someone from the south like Roger Miyamichi, or Bola Chidibu, or Yemi Yoshibajo, that they cannot defeat the PDP, is that what you're saying, Nick? So what happens? There are eight votes to win the ballot to be. Anything can happen. Even the candidate, some of them can stand within this period. What are you? The APC is a southern candidate to win the election. How is that possible? It is possible for them both to unite each other. I want the president to need to have local political staff to come together to get the votes to be accepted. But with them much local staff to get to the north, maybe to a different stage. That's very time-consuming. So the strategy that the APC can win the election, how is that going to work? Some of the school of thought, and we had an analysis on the newspaper review segment who also told that line, that incumbent executives who are in their final term usually would have less influence and less power, ability to dictate who becomes a successor, because they are about to leave. Those who go to part of that process do not necessarily need to be loyal to them, because their time is up. Do you share that view? Can you hear me, Nick? There is a school of thought that incumbent executives who are in their last term would have less influence and less power. Those who are around them, those who are part of the process to elect their successor, can decide to disobey them, go against them to not be loyal, and to go whichever way they want to go simply because this incumbent executive, in this case the president, is in their last term and will be leaving office after that. Very possible, very possible, if the people believe that the incumbent is about to leave office and only about going to win any part of it, they can disobey, they can go against and have a mind of, that is why it's very difficult to never consider what to do. And all we can do is to make the transition, but the reggae in some states, because we know that the APC will teach their sense of responsibility. We are going to accept that, of course. All right. Nick Agulay, I want to thank you very much for your time. You reached us all the way from Abuja. I appreciate your time and your expert analysis. Thank you very much. Thank you. We sincerely apologize for the poor quality of that audio connection, and of course we'll make sure that we work on that. When we return, we look at what happened in Abia State. The Methodist Church of Nigeria and the Prelate of that church have revealed that the sum of 100 million dollars paid to the abductors of the Prelate, his chaplain and the Methodist Bishop of Oweri, before they were released. Now, this is contrary to what the Abia State Governor, Okei Zeikbazu, had revealed in a statement released before the press conference of the Prelate. Look at that. So the claims made by the Prelate and implications for the overall security situation in the country. Please stay with us. Thank you.