Intrigues As Buhari Ditches Osinbajo

By Chidiebere Onyemaizu

 

Calculations as to how best to ensure President Muhammadu Buhari wins next year’s presidential election have become a huge threat to Vice president Osinbnjo’s political future. The All Progressives Congress, APC said last week that the decision to retain or drop the Vice President,Professor Yemi Osinbajo as Buhari’s running mate in 2019 lies with the President himself.

This magazine has gathered that the statement stemmed from plots within the president’s inner caucus to have Osinbajo replaced as VP next year. There are suggestions that for political equilibrium, the Professor of Law should be replaced as Buhari’s running mate for the 2019 presidential election with a South easterner or South southerner. The argument for South east is predicated upon Buhari’s manifest marginalization of the zone in terms of critical appointments.

It was furthered argued that ceding the APC 2019 vice presidential slot to the South east will go a long way in disapproving the notion among a broad spectrum of people of the zone that Buhari is an Igbo hater and does not mean well for an average Igboman and the zone.

In the case of South south, those rooting for the region for VP insist it is a sure way to sooth frayed nerves and heal the pains of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s loss to Buhari in the 2019 election. A member of the president’s inner kitchen campaigning for 2019 South south Vice presidency told The Source: ‘’having a Vice President of South south extraction four years after one of their own conceded defeat to Buhari is a sure way of returning peace to the restive oil bearing region. It will also help to placate militants still seething with anger over Jonathan’s defeat and roaring to disrupt oil production”

Meanwhile, fears of a backlash in the South west over Osinbajo has been allayed. The Magazine has been informed that if the VP is eventually dropped by Buhari as running mate, the region will be compensated with the Senate Presidency. In fact, one of the APC governors in the zone who will be rounding off his second term governorship next year is being tipped as the next Senate President. His choice is anchored on the fact that he was Senator and will not learn the ropes as a Senate President.

However, a group within the APC  is rooting for the party’s National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, himself also a former Senator, for the Senate Presidency. The group is of the view that the Southwest needs a strong voice in the APC-led federal government and that only a strong character and savvy politician like Tinubu can offer such voice.