A former presidential Special Adviser on Political Matters, Babafemi Ojudu, claims that former President Muhammadu Buhari was never behind the presidential aspiration of his then Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo. This gave room for President Bola Tinubu to pick the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential ticket and eventually win the election.
Ojudu further revealed that the ex-president did not support the current President, Bola Tinubu, his friend and political associate, to emerge as president. However, Tinubu “outsmarted him in so many different ways.”
On Monday evening, Ojudu disclosed this while appearing on Edmund Obilo’s podcast, State Affairs, broadcast from Ibadan, Oyo State.
Tinubu is not the Right Man to be Nigeria's President at this Time
— edmund obilo (@eobilo) December 30, 2024
"I Am Not Emilokan"
In this insightful episode of State Affairs, Babafemi Ojudu—acclaimed journalist, politician, and author of Adventures of A Guerrilla Journalist—opens up about his stance on Bola Tinubu and… pic.twitter.com/8oIKKwj0UD
According to Ojudu: “I knew Osinbajo was going to lose the primary, I saw it coming. Because of the system we operated and are still operating, I kept saying at our meeting that all our efforts, like travelling around, convincing people, and addressing delegates, are only 40 per cent. 60 percent of it lies in Buhari’s hands, unless and until Buhari mobilizes people around him, the governors, his aides, we are going nowhere. I used to refer to Buhari as a one-man majority, and he never mobilized his team towards Osinbajo, and I think Tinubu outsmarted him in so many different ways.“
The presidential aide promised to reveal more of the intrigues of that political era in his upcoming book.
It was generally believed that Mr Buhari and Tinubu had a baton handover pact with each other. However, the political events 2022, leading up to the 2023 election, appeared to prove otherwise.
In the build-up to the presidential elections, there were widespread claims that Buhari preferred the then-Senate President Ahmad Lawan. Others speculated that the dark horse was ex-Transportation Minister Chibuike Amaechi, who had been informally credited with funding Buhari’s 2015 presidential campaign.
However, the APC primaries results showed that Tinubu received 1,271 votes, former Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi received 316 votes to come second, and cerebral VP Osinbajo was relegated to third place with 235 votes. Lawan received only 152 votes.
Several near-election government policies, especially the currency redesign, were speculated to be hurdles in Tinubu’s way. He overcame them all to emerge victorious in 2023.
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