Saraki and co killed my move to become Vice President, Tinubu reveals

A former governor of Lagos State and national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has revealed how Senate President Bukola Saraki, among others, truncated his (Tinubu’s) hope of being a Vice President in the present administration.

He made the revelation in a book titled, ‘Against the Run of Play – How an incumbent president was defeated in Nigeria,’ written by Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi.

In the book, Tinubu narrated events that led to how chieftains in the then newly formed party decided to cancel him out as a running mate to Buhari, which was against part of agreements reached when the party was being put together.

He stated that Saraki, other APC governors and senators led the charge to stop the pairing before the party’s presidential primary in Lagos.

The author narrated, that “With the former Kwara State governor, Senator Bukola Saraki leading the charge, APC governors and senators agreed to meet with Tinubu to convince him that a Muslim-Muslim ticket would not work.

“At the meeting, Tinubu was non-committal, insisting that the issue of running mate should be discussed only after the primary. To him (Tinubu), it was more important that the governors worked to ensure the emergence of Buhari rather than dissipate energy on who would become the running mate.

“Apparently unsatisfied, Senator Saraki as well as Governors Wamakko of Sokoto and Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara decided to meet Buhari especially when they had feelers that he could announce Tinubu’s name as running mate the moment he was declared the winner of the primary, thus bringing about another fait accompli.

“The governors did a concise analysis of the situation for Buhari at the meeting. Each one told him about the Christian population in their states and how a Muslim-Muslim ticket would be perceived.

“They added that with such a ticket, it would be difficult to sell Buhari to get many votes from the North-central, a geopolitical zone that was then at play.

“The governors also stated that for the party to win, the running mate had to come from the South-west.

“Similar to Tinubu, Buhari made no commitment to them, but the governors were confident that they had driven the message home.

“But the former military head of state had come a long way and he was not prepared to gamble away what appeared to be his best shot at the presidency after his previous disappointments,” the book revealed.

However, the jostling for the post of running mate moved to Abuja once the primary was concluded. The book further added that while the names of Governors Rotimi Amaechi and Adams Oshiomhole were also being touted, many within the party hierarchy had decided that the position should go to the South-west.

The book added that in consulting on the issue, Buhari had visited former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar at his Abuja home on Sunday December 14, 2014.

“The former number two man pledged his support to Buhari but warned against picking a Muslim running mate, as that could jeopardise the aspiration of the party.

“On Monday 15th December 2014, Buhari called on Tinubu at his Asokoro residence in Abuja. It was not a pleasant meeting, according to those present.

“The APC presidential candidate explained why he could not go with a Muslim-Muslim ticket. But Tinubu countered that the position was forced on Buhari by his (Tinubu’s) opponents within the coalition who were using religion as an excuse to edge him out.

“Buhari persisted and asked Tinubu to nominate three persons. The South-west leader sent only one name: that of his former Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo,” Adeniyi wrote in his book.

Tinubu also revealed in the book that he was really hurt by the campaign orchestrated against him from both within and outside his party, though what hurt him most was those from within.

“What they (Saraki and others from 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 the opportunity to nominate the candidates of their choice 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 (Congress for Progressive Change) because at that point, he still wanted to have Pastor (Tunde) Bakare brought in as Buhari’s running mate,” Tinubu said.

The book also quoted Tinubu as saying that some governors and senators who decamped from the PDP approached him a day to the party’s primary to ask whether it was true that he had a deal with Buhari to run together, but he felt the timing and their motive were wrong.

“I told them that it was better to resolve such issues after the primary but they wanted to make it a condition for supporting Buhari which for me was very wrong.

“I told them I could not insist on this as a condition for my support for Buhari. I felt that it was not right to hold Buhari hostage in this manner. We thus canvassed hard for Buhari and threw our support behind him for the primary.

“I believe the support that we gave was fundamental to Buhari clinching the party’s nomination. Without that support, a different outcome would have been most likely,” Tinubu recalled.

The former Lagos State governor, also stated that there were two other options on the table for the Vice President’s position: Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (then governor of Kano State) and Atiku, in that order.

According to him, there were those who felt Kwankwaso, being younger, would make a better choice, while there were many within the party who were not so keen on the choice of Atiku, even though he was perhaps the most prepared for the job.

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