Osita Okechukwu, the Director-General, Voice of Nigeria (VON), has maintained that there was no agreement to make the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, the running mate of the President, Muhammadu Buhari, in 2015.
Chief Bisi Akande, former interim National Chairman of APC, had claimed in his book, ‘My Participations’, that Buhari in 2014 promised to make Tinubu his running mate in exchange for his support at the APC primaries, but reneged on his promise after some governors raised objections.
The VON DG, a foundation member of the APC made this submission while entertaining questions from journalists at the 2021 Eke Day in Abuja on Sunday, clarified what happened was “real politics”.
On whether there is an agreement between Tinubu and Buhari in 2015 to be his running mate in the presidential election, Okechukwu answered, “I don’t know of any agreement.”
As he insisted that Buhari did not breach any agreement with Tinubu, Okechukwu said: “I am one of those Buharists who have tremendous respect for Asiwaju for the critical supplement he added to Buhari’s 12 million Vote-Bank, which resulted in our 2015 presidential election victory.
“It is not a mean feat when you consider that with Buhari’s Vote-Bank, we were unable to win in 2003, 2007, and 2011, until the merger of the legacy political parties, where Tinubu played major role.
“All I know is that there was a raging debate on the proprietary of Muslim/Muslim ticket as to whether it can guarantee the victory of the APC at the 2015 presidential election.
“This was what to the best of my knowledge which denied Tinubu the Vice Presidential slot and not the scanty insinuation of breach of the agreement. The scale of Muslim/Muslim ticket was weighty unlike in 1993 Abiola/Kingibe ticket. It was thoroughly debated and dropped, for defeat phobia.”