2023: Why Buhari May Not Support Osinbajo, Tinubu Candidacy – Deji Adeyanju

One of the outspoken human rights activists in Nigeria, Deji Adeyanju, has outlined reason why President Muhammadu Buhari may not throw his weight behind the presidential ambition of his Vice, Yemi Osinbajo and that of the Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu in the 2023 general elections.

There had been claims in some quarters that the Vice President has plans to take over power when his principal’s tenure ends in 2023.

A notion which has been debunked by Yemi Osinbajo after it was stated that he would declare after the National Convention of the APC.

On the part of the former Governor of Lagos State, Tinubu, he has informed President Buhari of his ambition to run for the nation’s highest political office.

However, the Convener of Concerned Nigerian movement in his reaction to the presidential ambitions claimed that Buhari may not support Tinubu due to his alleged corrupt nature.

Adeyanju in an interview with Daily Post, referred to the statement of the President where he noted that he would not reveal his preferred candidate because such person may be killed if he reveals the identity.

He said Tinubu may not be President Buhari’s preferred presidential candidate because he could cripple Nigeria financially.

The human rights activist said, “I don’t think Tinubu or Osinbajo would be Buhari’s preferred candidate because I have studied him for a very long time now, and I can tell you that I have been able to predict almost all Buhari’s move even before he became President.

“He has done majority of the things I predicted and even exceeded my predictions. I don’t think he would support either of them, and these are my reasons.

“For Asiwaju, Tinubu is too blatantly corrupt for Buhari to support him. This is somebody with no known source of income and is richer than Lagos, Osun, and many states in the Southwest; if you give somebody like that presidential power, he would completely cripple the country financially.

“Asiwaju has an inordinate love for material things and accumulation of wealth. You can say anything against Buhari, but he is not that kind of person; Buhari is not that vein; there is still that level of decency in him.

“Buhari is not that type of person that would go and buy or accumulate properties in Lagos or Abuja in hundreds, so those are features in Tinubu that could make Buhari not likely to be inclined to handing over a whole country to him.”

Adeyanju while speaking on the possibility of Osinbajo emerging as the presidential candidate of the APC said, Buhari might not forgive his vice because of some remarks he allegedly made while he was undergoing medical attention in London in 2017.

According to Adeyanju, reports claimed that Osinbajo stated that his principal might not return to the country alive, a statement which Buhari may not consider funny and act on.

The activist further stated, “For Osinbajo, there have been a lot of reports that when the President was sick, he was among those who made a remark that he may not make it back and that he was already plotting and meeting people who would become his Vice President.

“And the Buhari we know does not forgive, neither does he forget things like that. There are insinuations that the President has not forgiven him for such remarks that he was labeled to have said. Osinbajo is not like to get the President’s nod.

“I think that this President is likely to look towards Southsouth, though I’m not in the position to know his mind, but I don’t think he would support Tinubu or Osinbajo.”