Fresh facts emerged yesterday that contenders for the presidential ticket of the
All Progressives Congress, APC, have intensified their bid to get the
endorsement of Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The five contenders – former military Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari; former
Vice President Atiku Abubakar; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu
Waziri Tambuwal; Kano State governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso; and publisher
of Leadership Newspapers, Sam Nda-Isaiah – are said to be appealing to various
sentiments with a view to getting the former Lagos State governor, who is the
most prominent APC leader but who is yet to come out openly to any of them. As the deadline for
the presentation of
a presidential flag-
bearer inches
closer, Sunday
Vanguard learnt that all the
contenders for
APC’s ticket are
now pulling all
possible stops
ranging from family linkages, to political
alliances, business
relationship as well
as sentiments bordering on contemporary realities. In fact, aspirant by aspirant, Sunday Vanguard was made to understand that the
pre-eminence of their relationship with Tinubu would play a major role in
determining who gets the ticket. Most importantly, leaders of the APC are agreed on a common possibility: That
managing a post-presidential convention rancor could cost the party more, than
having a house where interests are subsumed for the larger good of the party. For instance, the Buhari camp is said to be banking on the very obvious fact
that, without Tinubu and the former military head of state, there could never have
been any party in the first instance because “it was the merger between the
Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and the Congress for Progressive Change,
CPC, that gave birth to the APC”. An aide to Buhari said, And you cannot talk of
APC without talking about Tinubu and Buhari. How that important relationship would today be sacrificed on the altar of mere exigency is unfathomable”. For Kwankwaso, it was learnt that the relationship between Tinubu and the Kano
State governor did not just start in APC. “Mind you, both men were in the
National Assembly during the turbulent days of the Third Republic. And both
men are united in pursuing the need to ensure that the APC wrests power from
Jonathan next year because they both have come to realize that the only way to
rescue Nigeria from total collapse is to remove Jonathan from office. The feeling is mutual and the respect is also mutual. Both men are in talks and nothing is
etched in stone regarding where the interest would swing”, a Kwankwaso ally
said. Sam Nda-Isaiah’s decision to pitch his tent with the APC, sources said, may not
be unconnected with his progressive ideals which he continues to propagate in
his column. But beyond that, a Tinubu confidant said that “people on the outside
seem to forget that Ashiwaju has a way of keeping his cards close to his chest
and, just as Babatunde Raji Fashola emerged from the blues and became the
Lagos State governor in 2007, all the contenders for the presidential ticket of the party today stands almost an equal chance of getting Ashiwaju’s nod”. The most interesting of the permutations is the relationship between Tinubu and
Atiku. In fact, Sunday Vanguard gathered from a Tinubu insider that “Atiku’s decision to
finally dump the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the APC was never a flight
of fancy”. The insider added: “Recall that the fight to stop Olusegun Obasanjo’s
impunity as President which Atiku spearheaded got the support of Tinubu. And
whereas both men were in different political parties, their relationship dates back
to their days in the Social Democratic Party, SDP. The Tinubu that some people do not know is more potent that the Tinubu that people see at political rallies or
social gatherings. What the Turaki and Tinubu have agreed on is that a level
playing field is a condition-precedent to having a united house”. In the case of Tambuwal, APC sources said that unlike others who went for the
purchase of the presidential nomination forms, the Speaker of the House of
Representatives had the form bought for him. “That in itself speaks volume of
the goodwill he has. But he has himself said he is still consulting. And he
knows that quicksand of politics makes the game a very dicey one so nothing
can be cast in stone”, one of his aides said. Indeed, Tambuwal’s emergence as Speaker against PDP’s zoning arrangement
could not have been possible without the support of opposition reps in ACN and
CPC. Last night, one of Tinubu’s very associates disclosed to Sunday Vanguard that
even as the APC National Leader keeps his card close to his chest, “one thing is
paramount: The overall interest and success of the party supersede anybody’s
ambition”

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/11/2015-apc-presidency-fierce-battle-tinubus-endorsement/

I think Tambuwal's candidacy would be an awesome one. He is young, fresh, and had the charisma.

The only credible candidate in that list who stand shoulder ahead of any other candidate is GMB. We should not deceive ourselves, when we talk about change devoid of sentiment, we need to give this man the chance to rule again. Not that others re not good, but the odd favour the man most and if APC try to field other candidate apart from him, it may be calamitous. Nigeria need real and genuine leader

Go and seat down...

I assure you dat GMB is on the lead!

Atiku = PDP
Tambuwal = PDP
Kwankaso = PDP
Buhari = APC
Only Buhari has that APC blood running through his veins.

Truth be told, allowing any PDP defector to become the flagbearer of APC's would be a political suicide for APC.

A Tambuwal and a southeasterner,like Okorocha,would give GEJ something to fight for seriously. It will bring in votes of the southeast people and test the allegiance of the S/w in the party and the sincerity of their desire for change.

R

michelz:
A Tambuwal and a southeasterner,like Okorocha,would give GEJ something to fight for seriously. It will bring in votes of the southeast people and test the allegiance of the S/w in the party and the sincerity of their desire for change.

In this current dispensation and with the way the SE has voted in recent elections, no formula or combination put up by APC will bring enough votes from there. A VP ticket to the SE will be a miscalculation which will mean heavy defeat at the polls for APC.