Facts have emerged on how retired General
Muhammadu Buhari smoothly clinched the
presidential ticket of the leading opposition
party, the All Progressives Congress for the
2015 general election with 3,430 votes, beating
notable politician and former vice president
Atiku Abubakar, who came in a distant third by
scoring only 954 votes from the over 6,000
votes cast by delegates.
Others who lost to Buhari at the convention of
the party include the founder of LEADERSHIP
Group, Sam Nda-Isaiah, who got 10 votes;
Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State, who
came second with 974 votes and his Imo State
counterpart, Rochas Okorocha, who scored 624
votes.
It was learnt that ahead of the commencement
of the APC primary on Wednesday, national
leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, had
met with all the APC governors save for
Okorocha and Kwankwaso, at the Lagos House
where a deal was sealed in favour of Buhari…
Consequently, Governors Babatunde Fashola of
Lagos, Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers, Tanko Al-
Makura of Nasarawa, Kashim Shettima of Borno,
Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto, Abdulfatah Ahmed of
Kwara, Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo, Ibikunle Amosun of
Ogun, Rauf Aregbesola of Osun and Adams
Oshiomhole of Edo, directed their state
delegates to vote for Buhari en masse.
At Lagos
parley, which was at Tinubu’s instance, has
provided an insight into what transpired at the
pre-convention meeting, revealing that the
governors only endorsed Buhari after being
convinced that Atiku would allegedly be
uncontrollable for them if he emerges
president, given his financial wherewithal, hence
the need to vote for a financially-weak
aspirant, in the person of Buhari, LEADERSHIP
reports.
“They believe that his [Atiku’s] wealth has made
him too independent. This suits the Asiwaju
perfectly,” the source simply added.
It was apparent that Tinubu dictated the pace
of things at the primary election on Wednesday
as an earlier attempt by him to draft the
speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt.
Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, into the presidential race
caused ripples in both the APC and Buhari’s
camp in particular, before Tambuwal later opted
for his native Sokoto State governorship
contest.
– since this story is coming LEADERSHIP
newspaper and the owner of the paper got only
10 votes, I don’t know if we should take it
seriously or just see it as a mere political piece.
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