The Guardian has reported that the delay by the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari, in naming his running mate in the February 14, 2015 presidential election has been attributed to the former Head of State’s “characteristic inability” to take authority and his decision to concede the responsibility to former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Sources within the APC said that concerns began to mount last Thursday when Buhari failed to announce his running mate in his acceptance speech at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, venue of the presidential primaries of the party.
Many of the party leaders are now said to be worried that Buhari has surrendered his authority to take decision on the matter to the leader of APC in the South, Tinubu.
One of the sources said “unfortunately, the acceptance speech came and went without a mention of anyone to the dissatisfaction of many.
“I can confirm to you now, just as events of the last two days have shown, that the failure to make an announcement on the vice-presidential candidate was due to the deadlock within the APC over the choice.”
According to Guardian, There were credible feelers yesterday that the APC is at the moment struggling with different options, one of which is the Muslim/Muslim ticket, which idea was broached sometime this year.
Watchers of political developments in the parties had believed that the kite was then being flown to test the waters and possibly promote a Buhari-Tinubu presidential ticket. Opposition to the proposition was stringent.
It will be recalled that former vice-president Atiku Abubakar, who contested and came third in the primaries, had said in a recent interview that the National Working Committee of the APC had passed a resolution against it.
General Buhari, in the same interview series, had refused to give a categorical answer to the question for fear of antagonizing his benefactor, Tinubu, who was then believed to have interest in the position and who exercises great control on the APC structure in the Southwest.
According to the source, “Buhari knew from the outset that he would require the support of Tinubu to succeed in his presidential project and, having witnessed how Tinubu delivered the Southwest zone bulk votes to him at the primaries, he now seems to be overwhelmed by the fear of Tinubu and has failed to take any decisive action on the issue of a running mate.
“Despite his known preference for one of those struggling for the position, Buhari has ceded the power to select a running mate to Tinubu. There is the belief in some camps within the party that this is one of the several deals that Buhari made to secure Tinubu’s backing for the ticket.”
Another source in the APC, who expressed worries over the development, said “Many ardent supporters of Buhari have often cited amongst his key weaknesses, the characteristic inability to retain authority. Buhari is known to constantly cede his authority to those around him and remain a figure head.
“As military Head of State, it is well known that Major-General Buhari ceded much of his authority to his second in command (a fellow Muslim and an officer junior to him) Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon. Idiagbon it was who came to own and personify much of what the regime stood for until they were thrown out of power.
“Similarly, as head of the Petroleum Trust Fund, Buhari was in the dark about much of the operations of the organisation; he ceded his powers to the consultants he appointed (Afri-Projects, a firm owned by his relative). They proceeded to award billions of Naira worth of projects overwhelmingly in the North to the exclusion, and anger of much of Southern Nigeria.
“Once again, Buhari is showing that he is weak and beholden to Bola Tinubu who moved the APC national convention away from the nation’s capital, to his home base in Lagos. If there was any reason at all to move the party’s convention from the nation’s capital, why not move it to any of the states controlled by the APC in the South-East, North-East or South-South? This would have had the advantage of broadening the appeal of the party and addressing the charge that it is simply a South-West / North-West party.”
“When all is said and done, it appears certain, despite denials, that the choice of General Buhari’s vice-presidential candidate is not Buhari’s to make but will be the choice of Bola Tinubu; and all of us are now waiting on Tinubu to name his (Buhari’s) running mate.” The Guardian reports.
This is nothing but a distractiob. There’s nothing wrong for APR to be sure the best VP is selected that would perform as a team member rather than an antagonist as we witnessed with the Obama no Administration.
On Buhari’s style of leadership. I prefer it to the autocratic style, which is characteristic of the Military. The ability of a leader to build a viable performance team with concensus is theoretically and practically the best as long as the team members share the same philosophy and Agenda of the team.
The incumbent President is definitely surrounded by various disjointed interests that have caused so much confusion for an otherwise good person. The greatest problem of the President undoubtedly is the lack of leadership. He’s failed woefully in building a coherent or enabling team with a common performance Agenda. It seems the highest commonest factors (HCF) are stealing and non-accontability. And Jonathan either has no control or lost it so soon as the Administration began.
agaib, the bottom line is for the electorates to make an informed and educates decision on who is better to govern and deliver bases only on the candudates’ performance records and history. Let’s forget the style. There’s nothing secretive about their styles that should create any confusions. Both styles had performed or still performing. The analysis of the performance deliverables is the only measure required to make the decision in 2015.
And for those concerned about Tiny bi becoming the VP. So what! He sure performed relatively in Laos as the Governor in addition to building great performance teams considering his selection of Fashion and now Ambode. We should give credits to the guy for his political instincts and the skills in appointing the best there are. Even as at this day, those angling for Laos State, including Koro and Agbaje, all passes through the Tinubu college for performance. On a personal note, I’ll rather have Tinubu than Sambo for my VP. We must learn to make the best of what we have even if they are not the best we could have. The major Parties have given us the choice between GEJ and Buhari. The ball is now on the people’s side of the field. We must play it right to score one for the people, of the people and by the people.