Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, a presidential aspirant and APC national leader, alleged on Thursday that President Muhammadu Buhari wanted him to be his running mate in the 2015 presidential race.
When addressing the APC delegates ahead of the party’s primary, the former governor of Lagos State said this at the Presidential Lodge in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State.
Tinubu described the circumstances that led to Prof. Yemi Osinbajo’s election as vice president, saying Buhari had offered him a running mate ticket, but some blocs objected.
According to the former governor, he was requested to submit three candidates for the running mate role, and he chose Yemi Cardoso, Wale Edun, and Yemi Osinbajo. He went on to say that he eventually decided on Osinbajo as his running mate.
“You have not heard this from me before. This is the first place I am saying this,” Tinubu, who addressed the delegates in Yoruba, said.
“This is me telling you between me and God Almighty, Buhari called me to be his Vice President. He said because the first time he contested, he picked (Chuba) Okadigbo, but Nigerians didn’t vote for him.
“The second time, he picked another Igbo, (Edwin) Ume-Ezeoke, Nigerians didn’t vote for him, that if he went to bring the Pope to run as his deputy, Nigerians won’t vote for him, but you, Bola Tinubu, you have six governors, you have never lost an election before, come and be my vice”.
“He knew all the calculations then favoured us, that is why he wanted me as his deputy, but I told him to let us build the party first. And when we finished building the party after we brought in people from the Peoples Democratic Party, (Bukola) Saraki now saw that those from the PDP would not get anything if Buhari, a Muslim, became the president and me, also a Muslim, became his deputy, he won’t get the Senate president position and the Senate president cannot also be a Muslim. That was how they started the campaign of calumny against me.
“And I told them that I have a candidate that is a Christian that I can nominate so that the party will not break; that was how I nominated Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. I surrendered my right to him (Osinbajo).
“I was asked to submit three names, Yemi Cardozo, Wale Edun, and Yemi Osinbajo, but I told them if I submit three names, they would play a game, they might make it four and pick the fourth one. I gave them one name and that was Osinbajo.”
“If it wasn’t for me leading the warfront, Buhari wouldn’t have emerged,” he remarked of Buhari’s ascension. He competed in the first, second, and third rounds, but lost all three times. “He even stated on television that he will not run for office again,” Tinubu added.
If some one wants expert view about blogging and site-building then i advise him/her to go to see this weblog, Keep up the nice job.
Please let me know if you’re looking for a author for your site. You have some really great posts and I believe I would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off, I’d absolutely love to write some material for your blog in exchange for a link back to mine. Please blast me an e-mail if interested. Many thanks!
Wonderful blog! Do you have any tips and hints for aspiring writers? I’m planning to start my own website soon but I’m a little lost on everything. Would you suggest starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many choices out there that I’m totally confused .. Any recommendations? Thank you!
Do you mind if I quote a couple of your posts as long as I provide credit and sources back to your weblog? My website is in the very same area of interest as yours and my visitors would genuinely benefit from a lot of the information you present here. Please let me know if this okay with you. Thanks a lot!