Following his inability to decide on a running mate for Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.), who emerged last week as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), former Lagos State Governor and a national leader of the party Bola Tinubu was in the wee hours of this morning sidelined by the leadership of the APC from continuing with the task.

In his place, the National Chairman of APC, Chief John Oyegun, and Buhari were mandated to select a suitable running mate that would bolster APC’s chances of wresting the presidency from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Shortly after the APC national convention, Tinubu had been mandated by Buhari to select his running mate, but upon taking up the mantle, Tinubu had eliminated other vice-presidential hopefuls such as Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola and his Rivers State counterpart Chibuike Amaechi.

Backed by the South-West governors, Tinubu got the party to zone the slot for running mate to the South-west on the grounds that the zone is the second largest voting bloc in the country after the North-west, arguing that this could secure the presidency for APC.

On this basis, he tabled his name as the number one prospective running mate, former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Lagos Professor Yemi Osibajo as a fallback option and Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole to round up the list.

But his interest in the vice presidential post caused disconcertion among the leadership of the APC, especially among some of its non-South-west governors who felt that Tinubu was working only in his own interest.

There were also concerns that Tinubu was attempting to go against the grain of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC, which had several months ago, decided against a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the party.

Some of the governors opposed to the former Lagos State governor’s emergence, also zeroed in on two factors that could undermine a Buhari-Tinubu pairing, citing credibility and religious issues, that could be used effectively by the PDP to erode the massive bounce APC got after its national convention.

Owing to the impasse that ensued due to Tinubu’s ambition, the South-West caucus of the party, which met in Lagos till the early hours of yesterday was unable to decide on Buhari’s running mate.

Subsequently, an enlarged meeting of the APC was scheduled for Abuja last night where a decision was to be taken on who should be fielded alongside Buhari.

However, APC sources revealed that when Tinubu was invited to present his recommendation on a running mate, he could not present a coherent choice as Buhari's deputy.

As a result, the meeting set up a seven-man committee that was chaired by Tony Momoh to go and decide on a vice-presidential candidate and revert to the enlarged meeting last night with its recommendation.

Other members of the committee included former interim National Chairman of APC Chief Bisi Akande, representing the South-West; Zamfara State Governor Abudulaziz Yari, representing the North-West; former Gombe State Governor Senator Danjuma Goje, representing the North-East; former PDP National Chairman Audu Ogbe, representing North-Central; Sam Sam Jaja, representing the South-South; and Senator Chris Ngige to represent the South-East.

As its terms of reference, the committee, sources informed THISDAY, was mandated to select a candidate who must be a Christian from any part of the South; must be a governor or ex-governor; and must wield political clout capable of attracting votes for the party.

However, when the committee proceeded to meet, Akande, in an apparent attempt to push Tinubu’s candidacy as the running mate, reportedly informed the other members that as far as the South-West was concerned, the vice-presidential candidate must be a Muslim.

His position elicited strong opposition from other members of the committee who then decided to stop the meeting in order to brief other stakeholders of the party who were awaiting their recommendation.

“It was after the seven-man committee briefed the larger meeting on the position of the South-West zone that the leadership decided there and then to hand over the assignment of selecting a vice-presidential candidate to Chief Oyegun and General Buhari.

“This is what should have been done from the outset, then all this rancour over who should run with Buhari could have been avoided,” explained a party source.

Based on the decision taken by the leadership of the APC, he added that Tinubu, Fashola and Osibajo would probably no longer be in contention, while the chances of Amaechi, Oshiomhole and even Okorocha, have been bolstered considerably.

“Tinubu and Fashola are Muslims, which cancels them out, while Osibajo is not and was never a governor,” the source added.

Prior to last night’s meeting, Tinubu and Osibajo, sources intimated THISDAY, flew to Abuja on Monday for a meeting with Buhari.

However, the ex-Head of State was said to have stoutly rejected Osibajo as his running mate.

Buhari was said to have argued that his experience with fielding a Christian pastor as his running mate had not improved his chances in the past.

He told his audience that Pastor Tunde Bakare, who he ran with in the 2011 election, had better name recognition than Osibajo but could not pull in the much needed votes in the South, so fielding Osibajo with even less electoral value would be suicidal.

With no resolution following the meeting with Buhari, the hope among the party’s leadership was that the meeting scheduled for Abuja last night would reach a decision on what has become a very thorny issue, in order for the party to meet the INEC deadline for the submission of names of its candidates on December 18.

•Excerpted from a THISDAY report. Photo shows Tinubu.

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