The Ruling Party (APC) has appointed a new chairman at a national convention as it prepares to select a candidate to replace President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2023 election.

 

Buhari, who was first elected in 2015, spent weeks negotiating with the party's state governors and delegates to push a consensus position before the convention on Saturday.

Late Saturday night, the party agreed on Abdullahi Adamu, a senator who had been backed by Buhari to avoid more infighting, according to All Progressives Congress (APC) party electoral committee.

"I had cause to intervene in the leadership crisis which was about to cause confusion," Buhari said in a statement. "We must avoid overheating the polity and not allow our differences to tear and frustrate the party."

The appointment of a new party chairman and delegates was a final stage before primaries later this year for a presidential candidate.

Formed in an alliance of several parties in 2013, the APC managed to win in 2015 over the long-ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), which at the time was battling its own internal splits.

Buhari, who came to power promising to bring security and fight corruption, steps down pointing to his successes in infrastructure and transport projects.

But Nigeria is still battling jihadists in its northeast and its northwest region has been hit hard by criminal gangs behind a spate of attacks and mass kidnappings.

Under an unwritten agreement among elites, Nigeria's presidency is expected to rotate between a candidate from the mostly Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south.

Odomoneygist blog...