By Ayo Kehinde
In what looks like a statement on the possibility of a new political realignment ahead of the 2019 elections, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Wednesday said the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has not endorsed President Muhammad Buhari as its flag bearer for the presidential election holding in that year, despite statements of governors of the party to the contrary.
The National Leader of the APC, Tinubu, made the statement during a visit to Chief Reuben Fasonroti, the leader of the Afenifere, the Yoruba social-political organisation with whom he parted ways long ago and formed his own group Afenifere Renewal.
The visit, in the company of the Governor of Ondo State, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, his deputy, Mr. Agboola Ajayi and the Acting Chairman of the APC in the state, Mr. Ade Ademehin, spoke political volume, particularly considering that the Pa Fasonroti led group had been agitating for the restructuring of the country and fully endorsed the recommendations of the national conference convened by the immediate past administration of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.
Tinubu declared that the party would follow the normal democratic process in choosing its flagbearer in the 2019 Presidential Election. Emerging from the close door meeting with Pa Fasonroti, Tinubu told journalists:
“No governors can appropriate the power of endorsement to themselves. Buhari is a believer in the process. The Buhari, I know, believes in the rule of law. We wanted him even before the last convention and primary of the party and Akeredolu is here standing with me, he was not the governor then. He was one of the leading delegates that voted properly and Buhari was a clear winner.
“We followed all the constitutional provision and an individual or group’s opinion does not really matter at this stage, Buhari will want a normal process. Buhari that, I know, who says he will lose at any convention? But if the national body, the NEC (National Executive Committee) and all of us as members endorsed him as our single candidate, we will not be violating INEC regulations, we will not be violating our party constitution.
“What you are hearing is just a campaign by other people who might like to do so. Buhari has not excluded anybody, and he has not infringed on anybody’s ambition if there is. We can not be sycophantic about it.”
