2023: ‘Tinubu Not On The List Of Favoured Candidates To Succeed Buhari’

The National Vice Chairman, North West of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman has revealed that the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu is not on the list of favoured candidates to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.

He made the revelation in a statement on Tuesday titled “Electoral Contests and Public Expectations: Matching Hopes with Realities.

According to him, that is the reason some prominent people within the political circle and the presidency have not been openly supporting Tinubu’s ambition.

He listed the preferred candidates to include the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele and former President, Goodluck Jonathan.

Lukman who is a member of the APC National Working Committee added that Senate President Ahmad Lawan was picked as a fallback option to suit the sentiment of the northern region.

In his revelation, the APC chieftain said those behind the plot were not card-carrying members of the APC but forces outside the party and their plan had been set in motion as far back as April 2022.

The APC National Vice Chairman listed those behind the plot to include the publisher and owner of This day Newspaper and Arise Television, Nduka Ogbaigbena, 14 current governors, 13 former governors as well as three former senate presidents.

He said however when their plan for a consensus candidate failed and Tinubu emerged as the APC presidential candidate for 2023 thanks to the fairness of President Buhari in the process, they unleashed the cashless policy/naira swap policy of the CBN to damage the candidature of Asiwaju Tinubu.

He said: “It may also be important to remind Nigerians that the scheming around the emergence of a so-called consensus candidate was ridiculously stretched beyond the APC to include people like former President Goodluck Jonathan and Mr. Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria.

“These were never members of the APC. But with the active collaboration of some influential people outside the APC, such as Chief Nduka Ogbaigbena, publisher and owner of This day Newspaper and Arise Television, some sophisticated mobilization of so-called ‘hundred eminent businessmen, political, media, and civil society leaders, including 14 current governors, 13 former governors as well as three former senate presidents’ commenced around April 2022.

“Gradually, this scheming shifted and was entrenched within APC. By May 2023, when the party began to sell its nomination forms to aspiring candidates, forms were purchased by some APC leaders for former President Goodluck Jonathan and Mr. Godwin Emefiele.

“Eventually, when these schemers couldn’t succeed in popularising both former President Jonathan and Mr. Emefiele as possible contenders to emerge as consensus Presidential candidates for APC, the Senate President, Sen. Ahmed Lawan, was recruited and promoted.

“It is on record that Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, on the eve of the Convention that elected Asiwaju Tinubu as the Presidential candidate of the party, announced to NWC members that Sen. Ahmed Lawan was the consensus presidential candidate of the party. Members of the NWC, together with Progressive Governors, rose against that move. Thanks to President Muhammadu Buhari, the contest for the Presidential candidate of APC was thrown open, and Asiwaju won with a wide merging.

“Part of the dummy promoted within the APC to attempt to popularise the choice of a Northerner, Sen. Ahmed Lawan as a consensus candidate was that since PDP had elected Alh. Atiku Abubakar, a Northerner as its Presidential Candidate, we needed to also elect a Northern so that we can win the votes of Northerners. This is completely inconsiderate of the popular agitation for power shift in the country.

“It is also insensitive of the potential instability that the choice of another Northerner emerging as President of the country could cause. Ahead of the APC National Convention, APC Governors from the North had already declared their opposition against a Northerner emerging as APC Presidential candidate.”

Tinubu Would Win

Lukman however predicted that despite the forces against his candidacy, Tinubu would win the 2023 presidential election.

“Of course, forces within the APC are also uncomfortable with the possibility that Asiwaju Tinubu will be the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Schemers that failed to produce either Mr. Emefiele or former President Jonathan or Sen. Ahmed Lawan as a consensus candidate of APC have unleashed Mr. Emefiele’s so-called cashless policy to damage the APC and the candidature of Asiwaju Tinubu. But like they failed in the case of the consensus presidential candidate, they are also failing in their intrigues to damage the APC and the candidature of Asiwaju Tinubu.

As Asiwaju Tinubu emerged as the Presidential candidate of APC despite their machinations, Asiwaju Tinubu will also become elected as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, God willing,” he said.