Presidential aspirant Bola Tinubu on Thursday said he ceded the vice presidential slot to Prof Yemi Osinbajo in the build-up to the 2015 election.
Tinubu said this at the Presidential Lodge in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, while addressing APC delegates ahead of the party’s primary.
“Since the time we started with the Action Congress, Action Congress of Nigeria, and now the All Progressives Congress, I wanted to contest for president that time,” he said in Yoruba.
“This is me telling you between me and God Almighty, Buhari called me to be his vice president. He said because the first time he contested, he picked Okadigbo, flamboyant, Catholic, but Nigerians didn’t vote for him.
“The second time, he picked another Igbo, Omesioke, Nigerians didn’t vote for him, that if he goes to bring the Pope to run as his vice, Nigerians won’t vote for him, ‘but you, Bola Tinubu, you have six governors, you have never lost an election before, come and be my vice.’
“He knew all the calculations then favoured us, that is why he wanted me as his vice, but I told him to let us build the party first. When we finished building the party after we brought in people from the PDP, Saraki now saw that those from the PDP will not get anything if Buhari, a Muslim, becomes the president and me, also a Muslim becomes his vice, he won’t get the Senate Presidency and the Senate President cannot also be a Muslim, that was how they started the campaign of calumny against me.
“And I told them that I have a candidate that is a Christan that I can nominate so that the party will not break, that was how I nominated Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. I surrendered my right to him (Osinbajo).”
Tinubu’s comments come amid rumours he might not be Buhari’s favourite to succeed him. Buhari has been pushing for the party to opt for a consensus candidate instead of going into primary election proper.
The former Lagos State governor added, “I was asked to submit three names, Yemi Cardozo, Wale Edun, and Yemi Osinbajo. But I told them if I submit three names, they will play a game, they may make it four and pick the fourth one. I gave them one name and that was Osinbajo.”
Tinubu was accompanied to Ogun by Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; his Kano State counterpart, Umar Ganduje; and former Borno State governor, Kasim Shettima.
