The president of the senateAhmad Lawan will declare this week his intention to run for the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidacy, barring a last-minute change of plans.
Sources close to Lawan said he had been testing the waters for months and finally decided to make the statement after Sallah at the end of the Islamic month of Ramadan.
The APC will close the sale of its expression of interest and nomination forms on Friday and Mr. Lawan is expected to announce his interest before the forms are chosen.
When he does, he will become the second person from the northern part of the country to seek the APC presidential nomination after Kogi Governor Yahaya Bello.
It was hinted that the APC had zoned the ticket to the southern zones after they agreed earlier this year that the North and South would swap the national party offices they held prior to the party’s National Convention on 26 of March.
The convention saw the emergence of Abdullahi Adamu as the party’s first national chairman from a northern zone.
With President Muhammadu Buhari ending his second term, it was assumed that his successor would come from across the Niger and Benue rivers.
However, on Friday Adamu said that the APC had not yet made a decision on zoningand by implication where their presidential candidate will come from.
Mr. Lawan has been in the National Assembly since 1999, serving two terms in the House of Representatives before moving to the Senate in 2007.
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He made an unsuccessful bid for Senate president in 2015 when Bukola Saraki won the seat despite the fact that APC, the new ruling party at the time with a sizable majority in the House, nominated Lawan for the job.
He eventually became the Senate (majority) leader, a position he held until his 2019 election as Senate President.
Last week, two Abia state businessmen, Ukaegbu James and Nnanna Kalu, said they would write checks worth 200 million naira to Mr Lawan and Senate President and former Abia Governor Orji Kalu to buy the expression of APC presidential interest. and nomination forms.
Before that, last year, posters of Lawan had appeared in Damaturu, the capital of his home state of Yobe, and in some other northern cities, signed by northern youth groups praying to Allah to guide Lawan in his decision on the 2023 elections.
Although he has never spoken publicly about a presidential ambition, sources close to him said he has the support of prominent northern leaders and a wealthy businessman.
“I don’t know what day he’s going to pick up his forms, but he’s definitely going to testify this week,” said a Lawan associate who asked not to be identified because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the development with reporters.
“He had been under pressure to run for president and I know he has spoken to many of our leaders on this issue,” the associate said.
However, when asked for comment on Sunday’s development, Lawan’s special media adviser Ola Awoniyi said he had no information on it.