Buhari, Oyegun To Decide Running Mate

Reports coming in from Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, indicate that the National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Oyegun, has been mandated to work with retired General Muhammadu Buhari to select a suitable running mate that would bolster APC’s chances of wresting the presidency from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015.

According to Thisday report, this decision was taken by the APC on Monday after the leadership of the opposition party could not reach a consensus on a running mate Buhari, who emerged last week as the presidential candidate of the APC.

It was disclosed that former Lagos State Governor and a national leader of the party, Bola Tinubu, was sidelined by the leadership of the APC from continuing with the task.

It was gathered that Tinubu was sidelined because he tabled himself for the running mate position after eliminating other vice-presidential hopefuls such as Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola and his Rivers State counterpart Chibuike Amaechi.

Gen. Buhari and Oyegun.

Tinubu was said to have also tabled former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Lagos, Professor Yemi Osibajo and Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole as fallback options.



However, reports informed that Tinubu’s interest in the vice presidential post caused
disagreement 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.

It was gathered that those against Tinubu’s decision were claiming that his decision was against the decision of the party that it would not field a Muslim-Muslim ticket for next year’s presidential elections.

Bola Tinubu

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.