El-Rufai Reveals Why Northern Governors Picked Tinubu Over Osinbajo

Days after the national convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) held in Abuja, Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has explained why the Northern governor backed Bola Tinubu over Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

Naija News reports that former Governor of Lagos State, Tinubu emerged winner of the APC presidential primary.

He defeated the likes of VP Osinbajo, Former Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, Senate President Ahmad Lawan, Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello, Pastor Tunde Bakare and others.

Speaking on Tinubu’s victory at the party’s just-concluded national convention, El-Rufai said APC delegates and governors from the North-West and North-East met and resolved to back Tinubu after seeing him as the most sellable of the five Southern aspirants submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari earlier.

He said the president refused to pick a particular candidate and asked the governor to allow the delegates to decide.

El-Rufai insisted that Tinubu was the best bet and hence the Northern stakeholders choose him over Osinbajo, Amaechi and others.

He said: “I can’t say all of us stuck with Bola Tinubu. Not all of us were stuck with Bola Tinubu. In many of our states, the delegates’ votes were divided. And I went to address the Kaduna delegates for the last time before the voting,

“I don’t know how the delegates voted but the feedback I got after the voting is that most of them voted Asiwaju, some voted for Amaechi and some voted for Vice president, Osinbajo.

“But overall you can see that overwhelming, Asiwaju Tinubu won. I cannot say all the governors did that. We the Northwest governors met and we decided that our best bet, is the person we can most easily sell in our region, and that is Asiwaju Tinubu and this is why you see the pattern of the voting that way and where the North-West goes, the North East follows.”