2023: VP ‘Placeholder’: Tinubu, Obi In Trouble; INEC Says Not In The Constitution

By Adesina Soyooye

A great shock may be awaiting the Presidential candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC , Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and that of the Labour Party, LP, Mr Peter Obi.

Both candidates have no Vice Presidential candidates yet. Even though they submitted names  – Kabiru Masari from Katsina State for Tinubu, Dr Doyin Okupe from Ogun State for Obi – the names are temporary.  It was meant to beat the June 17 deadline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for the submission of VP candidates. The idea is to substitute the names with permanent candidates after consultations with Party stakeholders before the window of substitution closes. They call it “placeholder.”

But INEC may pull the rug from under their feet if what Festus Okoye,  INEC’s Commissioner in charge of Voter Education said Monday on Arise Television.

Speaking, Okoye said there is nothing like “placeholder” in the Constitution. He described the idea of “placeholder” as “a unique Nigerian invention”, and submitted that the Commission’s law has no such provision.

Okoye: “The Constitution makes it very clear that you cannot run alone as a Presidential candidate and must nominate an associate to run with you for that position, and as far as INEC is concerned, the Presidential candidates have submitted their associates to run with them in the Presidential election.

“As far as we are concerned, there’s no form submitted by the Presidential candidate where they said ‘we’re submitting this person’s name as a place or space holder.

“The issue of space or place holder is a unique Nigerian invention that has no place in our constitutional and legal framework.

“Political parties’ candidates have submitted names of associates to run with them, and that is the position of the law as at today and nothing has changed. For there to be a substitution of a candidate, the vice-presidential candidate must write to INEC, with a sworn affidavit stating that he is withdrawing from the race within the time frame provided by the law. That’s the only way there can be a substitution of candidates.”

If the due process is not followed, Obi would be worst hit. Okupe, his “placeholder”, is from the same Southern region as Obi. It would be the Northern region has been marginalised under the LP ticket.