Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State, declared in January that he was on a mission to fulfil a lifelong ambition, which is to be Nigeria’s president. As Lagos governor, Osinbajo served as his commissioner for justice. Tinubu also nominated Osinbajo as Buhari’s running mate.
The brewing titanic battle for the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential ticket is already severing the relationship between Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his political godson, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State, declared in January that he was on a mission to fulfil a lifelong ambition, which is to be Nigeria’s president. As Lagos governor, Osinbajo served as his commissioner for justice. Tinubu also nominated Osinbajo as Buhari’s running mate.
This morning, Osinbajo, in fulfilling what he says is God’s divine purpose for his life, has also bided for the APC presidential ticket.
Both men met APC governors to seek their support for their aspirations.
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While 10 APC governors attended Osinbajo’s parley, Tinubu got 12.
The governors that met Tinubu include; “Gboyega Oyetola (Osun), Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna), Abdullahi Umar Ganduje (Kano), Mohammed Abubakar Badaru (Jigawa), Mai Mala Buni (Yobe), Abubakar Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi) and Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos). Others were Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq (Kwara), Simon Bako Lalong (Plateau), Hope Uzodinma (Imo), Abdullahi Sule (Nasarawa) and Dapo Abiodun (Ogun).”
Governors at the Tinubu’s meeting were also at the Osinbajo’s parley, except for two. It is not yet clear who were those.
According to reporting by Vanguard Newspaper, Tinubu said he has no “son” grown enough to have made a presidential declaration.
“My mission here is to seek collaboration, support and encouragement of my party, the APC, for my ambition to become the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a replacement for President Muhammadu Buhari after his tenure.”
When journalists prodded him about Osinbajo’s declaration, he said: “I don’t have any son grown up enough to make such declaration”.
Kebbi State governor, Atiku Bagudu, who is the chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), said the meeting with Tinubu was to intimate them of his intention.
He said: “Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, this morning, met members of the Progressive Governors Forum where he stated what he has made public already -his intention to seek for the office of the President come 2023. He briefed us on his reasons, his thinking and his message.
“All the governors in attendance graciously came to listen to him. He acknowledged the role of the Governors in the last convention of our party, where, according to him, the governors of the party steadied the party by helping in the evolution of the leadership that is accepted and widely acknowledged as that which we wish for our party. We appreciated his message and will definitely discuss the message at one of our forum meetings”.
On choosing a candidate by consensus, Bagudu said: “In fact, on the contrary, we appreciate our party because it has become a party that has endeared itself to Nigerians. We have many brilliant people in our party, some serving and some not serving. The fact that we have people in our party who express a desire to lead the party into the highest office in the electoral contests shows how much our party has resonated with Nigerians and our party members.
“For us, it is a hallmark of success that people are showing interest, but at the end of the day and because they are leaders of the party, they will always put the party’s interest at heart.
“We always encourage our party to go for the best. Don’t forget that in the 2015 presidential election primary, President Buhari contested against several others and it was a beauty contest. There is nothing wrong. Members of the party always want to see consensus if it is possible but we are a democratic party.
“In our last convention, we had consensus in some of the offices and election in some others. There is always misrepresentation of consensus as if people are being snowballed into positions they would rather not take.
“APC has done well as a party, President Buhari has led the party ably well and we believe strongly that come 2023, Nigerians will see another President of the APC extraction.”
