APC Presidential Primaries: South East Out As Umahi Is Dropped; Osinbajo, Tinubu, Amaechi Fight On

By Uche Mbah

The ding dong game of choosing the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, continues Tuesday with the further pruning of the number of short-listed aspirants to three.

After a series of meetings and consultations, the party hierarchy has narrowed the list of contestants to the South-south and South-west Geopolitical Zones.

As such, Rotimi Amaechi, former Minister of Transport represents the South-south; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu for the Southwest.

News had filtered in earlier that the list of contestants had been narrowed to five, which included the aforementioned three and Kayode Fayemi, Ekiti state governor. Dave Umahi, governor of Ebonyi state who represented Southeast.

Both Fayemi and Umahi have been dropped, leaving the Southeast out of the equation.

Tension had heightened when the Northern APC Governors insisted on a Southern Presidency. But out of the blues, party Chairman Adamu announced the choice of Senate President Ahmed Lawan as the consensus Candidate.

This elicited uproar among the contestants, with National leader Ahmed Tinubu saying that such imposition is unconstitutional.

Tinubu has been alleged to unilaterally impose every successive Governor after him in Lagos State.

This magazine was told that President Muhammadu Buhari had hopes of using former president Goodluck Jonathan as the consensus candidate of the party. It was claimed that Jonathan played along with them until the last minute. Still full of hope that Jonathan had accepted, Buhari asked the Governors to allow him to choose his successor. By then, Jonathan had jetted out to Europe. When it became clear that Jonathan was not interested,  Buhari  asked the contestants to go and chose a consensus candidate among themselves. It could not work as no one wanted to step down for the other.

Buhari, this magazine was told, sent emissaries to Tinubu to try and prevail on him to step down from the race. Tinubu was said to be visibly angry. “Why didn’t he call me directly or talk to me face to face?”, he retorted.

He was to take show his anger  with his  outburst in Abeokuta where he said he was responsible for Buhari becoming president.

But that faux pax was to be  an Albatross. While his handlers were busy trying to do damage control by claiming his speech was misinterpreted because it was made in Yoruba, Tinubu rushed to Sokoto to consult and explain to the Sultan. They both went to the mosque to pray together.

It is not clear who may finally emerge out of the three, but pointers indicate the choice may be pruned down to Tinubu and Osinbajo. It is speculated that if Osinbajo emerges, Tinubu, who is quoted as saying that he would  fight till the last, may fall back on the Social Democratic Party, SDP, to realize his ambition. He is said to already have one leg there.