2019: Buhari may pick Tinubu
• Osinbajo likely to retire to full ministry at Redeemed Church
By Ismail Omipidan
Fourteen months to the next presidential election, there are indications that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) may have President Muhammadu Buhari-Asiwaju Bola Tinubu ticket, as one of its jokers for the 2019 election.
Competent sources close to The Redeemed Church told Daily Sun that Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, may have indicated to the church authorities that he would not be averse to a return to pastoral life.
He is a senior pastor of the church conglomerate.
Although president Buhari is yet to officially declare his bid for re-election, apart from a recent declaration that he may seek Nigerians’ votes again, it was gathered that Osinbajo’s replacement with Tinubu is being mooted as a way to have a solid South West support for the APC, in the face of a South East-South-South alliance in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Competent sources said the APC and Buhari tendencies in the party, which want another victory in 2019, reasoned that it is important to rally the South West behind the president.
It was gathered that towards this end, the Buhari tendencies recommended that a more popular politician from the South West should pair with the president in 2019.
The name of Tinubu came up as it is believed that he is the only singular South West personality who could effectively mobilise support for Buhari and the APC in the zone.
Those pushing for this said with South South and South East strongly behind PDP, the APC needs the South West to counter-balance the structure in the South. Tinubu’s VP candidacy is believed to guarantee this.
Those in the know revealed that the recent rapprochement between Buhari and Tinubu was geared towards “concretising the arrangement” of having two of them as presidential and vice presidential candidates in 2019.
Daily Sun gathered that until recently, the relationship between Buhari and Tinubu was frosty. Afraid that this may jeopardise Buhari’s re-election, the president’s political strategists recommended the wooing of the former Lagos governor.
Sources revealed that the wedding of Senate President, Bukola Saraki’s daughter in Lagos, recently, paved the way for emissaries from the Buhari camp to meet with Tinubu.
After the Lagos meeting, during Saraki’s daughter’s wedding, Tinubu was invited by the Presidency to grace the public presentation of a book on Buhari’s achievements. Thereafter, Tinubu accompanied Buhari on a trip outside the country, where further meetings on 2019 elections were held.
Apparently, after weighing the options, the Buhari-Tinubu ticket came into consideration.
Meanwhile, Tinubu’s camp has denied the existence of any such arrangement.
Although efforts to get Tinubu’s media aide, Mr. Tunde Rahman, to speak on the development proved abortive, a senior member of Tinubu’s camp said: “we dont have anything to say on the matter now,” but added: “let’s talk more on this later in the day.” That was yesterday.
He, however, refused to get back to our reporter as promised. Several calls to his mobile line were not asnwered.
This is not the first time the APC would moot the idea of a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
In the run up to the 2015 election, Tinubu left no one in doubt that he was desirous of running with Buhari. It was gathered that Buhari, at the time, had also conceded to Tinubu before some party chieftains, but, some powerful forces in the party, including Saraki, frustrated the plot. Source The Sun Newspaper