Former Lagos state governor and Presidential hopeful, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has recounted the roles he played in the emergence of Prof. Yemi Osinbajo as Nigeria’s Vice President.
The APC national leader who is also jostling for the APC presidential ticket said he submitted Osinbajo’s name to be selected as President Muhammadu Buhari’s vice president.
Tinubu made the comment when he met with the Ogun state governor and his teeming supporters in Abeokuta on Thursday.
The ex-Lagos governor noted that President Muhammadu Buhari wanted him to be vice-President but he submitted Osinbajo’s name as a result of the opposition he faced from former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who started a “campaign of calumny” against him over a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
Tinubu said, “Buhari wanted me to be his Vice President. He said because the first time he contested, he picked (Chuba) Okadigbo; flamboyant, catholic, but Nigerians didn’t vote for him (Buhari). The second time, he picked another Igbo, Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, Nigerians didn’t vote for him, that if he brought the Pope to run as his deputy, Nigerians would not vote for him, that ‘you, Bola Tinubu, you have six governors, you have never lost an election before, come and be my running mate.
“He knew all the calculations then favoured us. That was why he wanted me as his running mate, but I told him to let us build the party first. And when we finished building the party, we brought in people from the PDP. Saraki saw that those from the PDP would not get anything if Buhari, a Muslim becomes the President and me, also a Muslim becomes his deputy. He won’t become the Senate President and the Senate President could not also be a Muslim. That was how they started the campaign of calumny against me.
“And I told them that I had a candidate that is a Christan that I could nominate so that the party would not break. That was how I nominated Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. I surrendered my right to him (Osinbajo).
“I was asked to submit three names, Yemi Cardozo, Wale Edun and Yemi Osinbajo, but I told them if I submitted three names, they would play a game. They may make it four and pick the fourth one. I gave them one name and that was Osinbajo.”
