Yobe Guber: Consensus Must Comply With Electoral Act Not Otherwise – Tumsah 

A govenrorship aspirant for Yobe State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Kashim Musa Tumsah, has declared that consensus mode of nominating candidates for election must comply with the Electoral Act, 2026.

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Section 87 of the Election Act, 2026 prescribes that:”(1) A political party that adopts a consensus candidate shall

secure the written consent of all cleared aspirants for the

position, indicating their voluntary withdrawal from the race and their endorsement of the consensus candidate.

“(2) Where a political party is unable to secure the written

consent of all cleared aspirants for the purpose of a

consensus candidate, it shall revert to the choice of direct

primaries for the nomination of candidates for the elective

positions.”

Former president of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan who is also a governorship aspirant had disclosed that Yobe state chapter of APC adopted consensus as the mode for its 2027 primary election.

However, Tumsah insisted that

by virtue of the Electoral Act, consensus can only be among the aspirants who purchase the expression of interest and nomination forms.

Speaking when he received the APC governorship forms the Haske Forum, Yobe state purchased for him in Abuja on Tuesday, the lawyer and oil expert said consensus does not imply one or two people sitting in a room to select whoever they want as the party’s candidate.

He said Yobe APC has not fully adhered to the requirements for consensus, since the Haske Forum decided to purchase the forms for him.

“Don’t forget that when the current president, His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu, contested for the presidency in 2003, 2002-2003, we all heard that he was not the candidate for the party and the party brought out their consensus candidate, isn’t it?

“Then we heard that the presidency was not in support of him and they had a chosen candidate but at the end of the day, he decided to contest for the primaries and and today he is the president by the grace of God,” Tumsah said.

He noted that even if consensus method is adopted, the most popular candidate should be selected to represent the party.

Tumsah said: “if you bring an unpopular candidate, it’s going to be detrimental to the party. and I don’t want to see such thing happening to APC in my state, Yobe. I don’t want us to have the same result that we had in 2023.

“As you know, the PDP won in Yobe in the presidential election. If we don’t take time and if we do not carefully managing this consensus arrangement, the same scenario will play out and we don’t want that to happen.”

The governorship hopeful also said he stood out among his fellow contenders through his antecedents and development agenda for the state.

“Political titles do not make you the best candidate for a position. I know my antecedents and if you go through my antecedents, you will know that I’ve held several sensitive and technical positions that qualify me to be the best candidate for Yobe, especially at this point in time.

“Most of the people you mentioned came in through politics but I came in through hard professional work and that is why I’m where I am. So I don’t think because somebody was former senate president or SSG or senator that qualifies him automatically to be the best candidate.

“No, the title does not make you the best candidate. What have you got for Yobe? What have you done for Yobe when you were all these things?” he queried.

Presenting the forms to Tumsah, Leader of Haske Forum in Yobe state, Fatima Godowoli said they prevailed on him to join the governorship race based on his pedigree of development and leadership acumen.

“In the first instance, we’ve been calling on him to come forward, at least to be our leader. We emphasised and emphasised calling on him several times to come on board before he finally answered.

“After several months of begging, he submitted to us. We urge him that sincerely we’re going out there to look for supporters. It came to the point that we had a conference calling on all our members to come on board and support this great project which all our members supported.

“This is where we are today. We have got the expression of interest and nomination forms and we are here to present the forms. Finally, we are very grateful to God Almighty and we will continue to pray that God will deliver and grant him success and God’s willing, he will be our governor in 2027,” she added.