There are strong indications that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, may have a President Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Tinubu ticket, as one of its jokers for the 2019 general elections.
Incredible sources revealed that Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, may have indicated to the Redeemed Christain Church Of God, RCCG, that he would return to pastoral life, at the end of his first tenure.
It was gathered that Osinbajo’s replacement with Tinubu, is being mooted as a way to have a solid South-West support for the APC, in the face of a South-East and South-South alliance in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
The name of Tinubu came up, as it is believed that he is the only singular South-West personality that could effectively mobilise support for Buhari and the APC in the zone.
Those pushing for this said with South-South and South-East strongly behind PDP, the APC needs the South-West to counter-balance the structure in the South; Tinubu’s VP candidacy is believed to guarantee this.
Those in the know revealed that the recent rapprochement between Buhari and Tinubu, was geared towards “concretising the arrangement” of having two of them as Presidential and Vice presidential Candidates, in 2019.
It was gathered that until recently, the relationship between Buhari and Tinubu was frosty. Afraid that this may jeopardise Buhari’s re-election, the President’s political strategists, recommended the wooing of the former Lagos Governor.
Meanwhile, Tinubu’s camp has denied the existence of any such arrangement, as efforts to get Tinubu’s Media Aide, Tunde Rahman, to speak on the development proved abortive.
A senior member of Tinubu’s camp said: “We do not have anything to say on the matter now.”
Post-Nigeria could recall however, that this is not the first time the APC would moot the idea of a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
In the run-up to the 2015 election, Tinubu left no one in doubt that he was desirous of running with Buhari. It was gathered that Buhari at the time, had also conceded to Tinubu, before some party chieftains, some powerful forces in the party, including Bukola Saraki, the Senate President, frustrated the plot.
Saraki would later lend credence to this fact in April 2016, when he tried to explain why Tinubu was after him.
He had said: “… I have also been accused of helping frustrate some people’s opportunity to emerge as President Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate. But, I have no problem with anybody. My concern was that it would not be politically smart of us to run with a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
He had said: “… I have also been accused of helping frustrate some people’s opportunity to emerge as President Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate. But, I have no problem with anybody. My concern was that it would not be politically smart of us to run with a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
“I doubt if we would have won the election if we had done this, especially after the PDP had successfully framed us as a Muslim party. I felt we were no longer in 1993. Perhaps, more than ever before, Nigerians are more sensitive to issues of religious balancing.
“This my brother, was my original sin. What they say to themselves, among other things, was that if he could conspire against our ambition, then, he must not realise his own ambition as well. For me however, I have no regrets about this. I only stood for what I believed was in the best interest of the party, and in the best interest of Nigeria.”
Later this year, Tinubu also confirmed what had long been dubbed mere speculation when he revealed that Saraki and the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, worked against Buhari’s plan to make him his running mate, in the run-up to the 2015 Presidential contest.
Tinubu, in the book: “Against the Run of Play”, written by the Chairman, Editorial Board of This Day, Olusegun Adeniyi, which was presented to the public this year, said Saraki, El-Rufai, and other senior members of the PDP, who joined the APC in the build-up to the 2015 general elections, were the ones who instigated Buhari and some APC chieftains not to pick him as a running mate.
He said: “What they (Saraki and others from the PDP) did behind my back was wrong. We always do things as a group. By the time they joined, we were already too far ahead in our processes, but we accommodated them.
“We agreed to take their state structures and subsume them into the party, and they all had their opportunity to nominate the candidates for their choices for different political offices. But they went behind to instigate Buhari and some other people in the party against me, on the pretext of religion. That was not right.
“They were canvassing arguments that the Christians in the North would not vote for a Muslim-Muslim ticket. Nasir El-Rufai was also selling the same argument within the CPC (the defunct Congress for Progressive Change), because at that point, he still wanted to have Pastor (Tunde) Bakare brought in as Buhari’s running mate.”
However, a source close to Osinbajo’s camp said: “You guys are just underrating that man. Do not underrate Osinbajo; he is capable of being his own man when it matters most.
“Are you aware that, that period Buhari was sick, when many thought he would not return, moves were on to make the VP run in 2019, with a Northern candidate? So, how will you now conclude it will be easy to just shove such a man aside?
“Have you also thought of what the reaction from the Christian community would be? All these are things that will come into play in taking this decision. Till then, let us leave it at that for now”, the source said.
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