Politics

The die is cast: Judgement Day for Tinubu, Osinbajo, others

Published By Kazeem Ugbodaga

Date 6th June, 2022

Some APC presidential aspirants

Quick Read

The equation of the game appeared to have changed some days ago after the president told APC governors that he should be allowed to choose his successor. That heightened tension in the party, as people felt that the president is on a mission to impose an anointed candidate on the party.

After several months of campaign, meeting with delegates, traditional rulers and others, the die is finally cast, APC presidential aspirants will slug it out between today, Monday and Tuesday at the party’s presidential primary at Eagles Square, Abuja. Twenty-two aspirants are slugging it out for the party’s ticket.

The leading aspirants are certainly the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and his ‘godson’ Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. The full list of aspirants are: Akpabio Godswill Obot, Rotimi Amaechi, Ibikunle Amosun, Yahaya Bello, Kayode Fayemi, Tein Jack-Rich, Ahmad Lawan, Emeka Nwajiuba, Christopher Onu, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and David Umahi.

Others are: Rochas Okorocha, Ben Ayade, Tunde Bakare, Sani Yerima, Ken Nnamani, Ikeobasi Mokelu, Demeji Bankole, Ajayi Borroffice, Felix Nicholas and Uju Ken-Ohanenye.

With President Muhammadu Buhari and the northern governors agreeing to zone the APC presidential ticket to the South, the chances of Tinubu and Osinbajo appeared to be clearer.

After meeting with all presidential aspirants on Saturday, Buhari insisted that a consensus candidate would be best for the party and asked the aspirants to meet among themselves to come up with the right candidate.

The president said: “Ahead of the Convention, the party machinery has screened and found all aspirants eminently qualified. Recognizing this fact, the Screening Committee has, amongst others, recommended that consensus building through consultation, be intensified.

“Without prejudice to your qualifications, I urge all of you to hold consultations amongst yourselves and with the party, with a view to building a consensus in a manner that would help the party reduce the number of aspirants, bring up a formidable candidate and scale down the anxiety of party members.”

Apart from Governor Badaru Abubakar who had so far stepped down from the race following northern governors’ decision that the ticket be zoned to the south, no other aspirant has withdrawn from the race so far.

Attempt by Southwest leaders to make Tinubu and Osinbajo reach a consensus has not yielded any fruit as they want to be president.

For Tinubu, he will win the presidential ticket under a free and fair contest, but it appears that the body language of the president and that of the party chairman, Abubakar Adamu are not favourable to him. This became apparent following Adamu’s outburst after Tinubu spoke in Abeokuta while meeting with delegates. The terse Tinubu’s speech in Yoruba language where he said he worked for the emergence of Buhari in 2015, did not go down well with Adamu. He has shown by his outburst that he is a bias umpire and was appointed to do the bidding of the president.

Adamu had said: “It is amazing how a fellow APC person would make that kind of comment in that kind of circumstance about the President. We take exception to this. It has shown that he (Tinubu) does not show any appreciable level of respect for the office of Mr President.

“Therefore, we want to make it public that we are saddened by what we saw in the video, in that reportage and we condemn it in the strongest of terms. We do hope that he would never say that kind of thing again, particularly of the APC extraction to make such kinds of comments.

“Yes, yesterday, we saw some part of a retraction but that effort is not adequate. It is not sincere. It is not in-depth enough. It doesn’t wipe out the impression that event has left in our minds.

“What he did say was not an apology. It’s just like trying to retract and you say. I didn’t mean this. It’s a problem of misinterpretation. It is not a regret.

“If there is the need to penalise any member of the party, not just Bola Tinubu, anybody, we will bring him to the party’s book. Anybody, as we watch events unfold.”

With Adamu’s statement, will today’s presidential primary election be free and fair? Be that as it may, the battle-line is drawn. Either Tinubu or Osinbajo will emerge the APC presidential aspirants today. Other contestants are just wasting their time. The contest is between Tinubu and Osinbajo. While Osinbajo’s confidence is built on the president naming him a consensus candidate, Tinubu is relying on his popularity to give him the ticket, but the president is key in this matter. Tonight and and early Tuesday morning will be very interesting. Are we expecting an upset? Any result against Tinubu is an upset, but a free and fair primary will not create upset.][

Tags: Asiwaju Bola Tinubu Yemi Osinbajo

Quick Read

Comments