The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that the choice of its presidential running mate will be made within the context of the best democratic ideals, just like that of its presidential candidate.
This represents a somewhat shift from media reports, which had said the presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.), had surrendered the choice of his running mate to Senator Bola Tinubu, one of the national leaders of the party.
The party’s position came just as all indications point to the emergence of a south- south vice presidential candidate in the person of Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole.
THISDAY gathered that barring any last minute switch in choice, Oshiomhole will be formally presented to a meeting of party leaders in Abuja Monday.
A reliable source said yesterday that the choice of Buhari’s running mate has been narrowed down to Governor Oshiomhole and former Lagos State Attorney General and a Pastor of the Redeemed Church of God (RCCG), Prof. Yemi Osibajo.
According to the source, consideration for the two men came only after the former Lagos State governor, Tinubu had agreed to drop his ambition to run with Buhari.
It was learnt that pressure was mounted on Tinubu to drop his interest following wide-spread concern against the fielding of a Muslim-Muslim ticket, especially considering the mood of the nation.
Buhari was said to have asked Tinubu to recommend anybody including himself for the number two job.
Having accepted to drop his interest, Tinubu was therefore given the chance to nominate a candidate for the position of vice president. Tinubu first picked Osibajo but because of the insistence by the APC governors that Buhari’s running should be chosen from amongst them, he later on settled for Oshiomhole, who beside being a serving governor, is considered to have greater electoral value than the little-known Osibajo.
However, some party elders still feel strongly that the candidature of the Rivers State governor, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi is best for the number two slot given not only his strategic geographical importance, but also the huge vote his candidature can attract for the party. It is also believed that Governor Amaechi had been a financial bulwark for the party, especially in the up-scale appearance and political reach of the party’s presidential candidate.
In addition, the former publicity secretary of the defunct New PDP, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze argued that the pair of Buhari and Amaechi offer a greater assurance of routing the PDP from office.
According to Chief Eze, in an online publication, NewsDairy “With the myth surrounding Buhari combined with the bravery and sagacity of Gov. Amaechi, PDP’s days in the Aso (Rock) Presidential Villa will surely become history by 2015. It is left to the APC power brokers to give a chance to this union if they are serious about ending the embarrassment that PDP has become in the politics of our nation.”
He argued further that APC stands on two legs – the Legacy Group comprising the merger parties and the Equity Group made up of the defunct New PDP. “It is in the interest of justice and fair play for the Equity Group in APC to produce the presidential running mate,” he said. “If the Legacy group has claimed both the National Chairmanship and Presidential Ticket of the party in Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and Gen. Buhari, denying the Equity Group the office of the Vice-President will be tantamount to telling us that our efforts in repositioning APC makes no meaning to the APC power brokers,” he added.
However, a party source, who did not want to be mentioned told THISDAY that intensive consultations were being made with other stakeholders, especially those from the South-east, who had expected that the party’s running mate should have emerged from the zone so as to strengthen the party and galvanise Igbo support ahead of the 2015 general election.
The calculation is that if Oshiomhole scales through as the vice-presidential candidate, the national chairmanship position will be moved to South-west so that Tinubu could then be crowned the new party chairman.
It is expected that the leadership of APC, which has scheduled its National Working Committee meeting for today will use the opportunity to unveil the chosen running mate.
And as if to give verve to his possible emergence, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has declared that the battle to oust the PDP from governance at the centre has indeed begun.
Oshiomhole who spoke with journalists in Auchi yesterday shortly after attending the 22nd convocation ceremony and the 50th anniversary of the Auchi Polytechnic, said the PDP had shown crass incompetence to “fix Nigeria’s problems.”
He said the PDP should leave the stage and do soul searching to know why after 16 years in power, “they have not fixed power, education, health sector, roads,” adding that they have dashed the expectation of the youths and have polluted the political atmosphere, weakened the foundation of national unity, re-partitioned the country along religious divide, along ethnic divide, played brothers against brothers, sisters against sisters, and buffeted everyone with primordial sentiments in place of issues of development.
According to him, “the country is weaker today than it was before. We need people who fought to keep Nigeria together. Let them come back and re-fix what PDP has broken and it is all about all of us today.”
Oshiomhole said the PDP’s mismanagement of the country has also affected the power sector, a sector he said was vital for the growth of any country. “Nigerians should vote for change, even PDP needs change, you can see; the internal contradictions within the PDP is like a weak fabric; the more you patch it, the more it gets torn and after 16 years, even PDP will agree that they haven’t delivered on the promises of democracy.
“Look at the newspapers, they have issues today because the cost of production is going up because of escalating cost of procuring diesel because you are still not able to print with power in spite of all the reforms and deforms of the power sector. Look at the typical newspaper today, you don’t find products adverts what you find is obituary, birthdays, endless congratulatory messages for all kinds of trivial quote and unquote accomplishments. The private sector is dead and this is why you are not getting adverts for products and you are not going to be able to create jobs if you don’t revive the private sector and as you can see even though between 1999 till date, the oil sector has performed better than it was in the previous ten years.
Continuing, the governor said “Remember that during the regimes of Abacha and Abdulsalami, oil price dropped to $10 so Nigeria has never had it so good since democracy, it picked up to $140 around 2006 and even now that we are complaining, it is about $60 to $65 so relative to the past, it is still a good price but like they say, no nation has enough to meet the greed of the leaders but if we manage what have well, we have enough to meet the basic needs of our people and there is no question that our people are living in denial, in the midst of plenty but I am even more worried about the deliberate efforts to weaken unity in order to create all kinds of divide.”
APC: We will Stick to Best Democratic Ideals to Pick a Running Mate
However, the party in a statement issued on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, urged Nigerians to ignore what it described as widespread and misleading reports in the traditional and social media about the choice of the APC presidential running mate, saying the party has yet to even meet, not to talk of picking a running mate.
It described the reports that a running mate has been picked to run with the APC presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, as unnecessarily sensational, downright speculative and totally misleading.
”We are using this opportunity to tell Nigerians to pray for us as we seek to pick a running mate for our presidential candidate. This is because this choice is not just for us but for all of Nigeria,” APC said.
The party said everyone of the candidates who have been speculated as a running mate to Buhari is unquestionably competent to be a Vice-President or even President, adding, however, that no choice has yet been made by the party.
”We are glad with the feedback we have received from Nigerians on the transparent and rancour-free manner in which our presidential primaries was organised. We are assuring Nigerians that the choice of our presidential running mate will also be guided by best democratic ideals.
”We appreciate the nationwide interest that the choice of our presidential candidate and his running mate has generated. It is a mark of the confidence that Nigerians repose in us. We assure that we will not disappoint our compatriots who have seen our party as the agent of the change they so much crave,” it said.
