APC holds presidential primaries today

APC PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES

No fewer than 7,000 delegates from 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) will elect the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) today at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan for next year’s election. Five aspirants are in the race. Who gets the ticket? Group Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU and Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI examine the search for a credible and nationally acceptable opposition flag bearer and issues that will shape the shadow poll. 
Buhari
Former Head of State Major-General Muhammadu Buhari  was born December 17, 1942 in Daura, Katsina State.
He joined the Nigerian Army in 1962. Buhari first came to widespread public attention in 1976 when he became the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources. He had earlier served as Governor of the then North-Eastern State.
Buhari served as the Chairman of the Petroleum Trust  Fund (PTF), a body created by the government of General Abacha, and funded from the revenue generated by the increase in price of petroleum products, to pursue developmental projects around the country.
He contested the presidential election in 2003 and  2007 (under the platform of the All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP). He also contested the 2011 presidential election under the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).
Gen Buhari is well regarded as a highly disciplined leader and statesman who abhors corruption. His politics is defined by integrity.
He is married with children.

Abubakar
Businessman, administrator and former Vice President , Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was born on the 25th of November 1946 in Jada village, Adamawa State
He was admitted to Adamawa Provincial Secondary School in Yola in 1960. He graduated from secondary school in 1965. He worked briefly as a Tax Officer in the regional Ministry of Finance, from where he gained admission to the School of Hygiene in Kano in 1966.
He graduated with a Diploma in 1967. In 1967, he enrolled for a Law Diploma at the Ahmadu Bello University Institute of Administration, on a scholarship from the regional government. After graduation in 1969, he was employed by the Nigerian Customs Service.
His assignments at the Customs included Idi-Iroko, Apapa Ports (1974), Ibadan Customs Command (1975), Kano Command (1976), Maiduguri (Area Comptroller, 1977), Kaduna (1980)  the Apapa Ports in 1982 and Murtala Muhammed International Airport
He won the Adamawa State governorship elections in December 1998, but before the inauguration date, he was named the vice-presidential candidate to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
He is married with 30 children.

Kwankwaso
Alhaji Mohammed Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, politician, administrator and currently governor of Kano State was born in Kwankwaso village in Madobi Local Government Area of Kano State in 1956.
He attended Kwankwaso Primary School, Gwarzo;  Wudil Craft School and Kano Technical College before proceeding to Kaduna Polytechnic for his tertiary education. He also did his post-graduate studies in the United Kingdom.
He started work in 1975 with WRECA. He joined partisan politics in the aborted Third Republic where he contested elections to the House of Representatives. He became the Deputy Speaker.
Kwankwaso was elected Governor of Kano State in 1999 and led the state between 1999 and 2003 with a  massive focus on educational development of the state.
He lost his re-election bid in 2003. He was however re-elected as Kano state governor on 27 April 2011 and sworn in on 29 May 2011 for a second term in office.
Prior to his second coming as Governor of kano state, Alhaji Kwankwaso served as Minister of Defence in President Olusegun Obasanjo’s cabinet in 2003. In 2007, he was appointed as the Presidential Special Envoy to Somalia and Darfur by the federal government.
He is married with children.

Okorocha
Businessman, administrator and philanthropist, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, currently the Governor of Imo State was born on  September  22, 1962, in Ogboko, Ideato South, Imo State. He attended Juladaco High School, Jos (1976-1981). He studied at the University of Jos (1990-1991), obtaining a diploma in Public Administration. He returned to the University of Jos (1993-1994) to obtain an Advanced Diploma in Public Administration.
He has held position as  President, Nigeria Red Cross Society, President/Founder, Rochas Foundation Inc, President, Rochas Group of Companies Limited, Pro Chancellor, African Business School. He is married with children.

Sam Nda-Isaiah
Pharmacist, Newspaper Publisher and entrepreneur, Sam Nda-Isaiah was born in Minna, Niger State, on May 1, 1962. He attended Christ Church School, Katsina Road, Kaduna, between 1968 and 1974; Government College, Kaduna, 1974–1979; and the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, 1979-1983, where he studied Pharmacy. On graduation, Sam worked at the Minna General Hospital, after a stint at the Kano Specialist Hospital. He did his NYSC at the General Hospital, Ilawe Ekiti, and the State Hospital, Ikere Ekiti, both in Ekiti State, in 1984. In 1985, he joined Pfizer Products Limited where he worked until 1989. He resigned and launched into serial entrepreneurship.
Sam’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to establish the Leadership Group in 2003 with less than N1 million. He is highly respected for his Monday column in the LEADERSHIP Newspaper, through which he has established himself as a pro-good governance exponent.
Sam is an alumnus of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore and also of the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University, New York.
The proprietor of LEADERSHIP Newspapers is a member of the Institute of Directors, member of the Vienna-based International Press Institute;  World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and an executive member of the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN). He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Edusoko University, Bida, and of the newly reconstituted Heritage University in Kaduna.
He is married to Zainab and they are blessed with four children.
 Source: The Nation