By Demola Atobaba, Ado-Ekiti
Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose has described the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential candidate, Major General Mohammadu Buhari (rtd), as the candidate of former Lagos State Governor, Senator Bola Tinubu.
Fayose in a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said: “The people of Northern Nigeria will choose their own candidate in 2019 when it will be the turn of the region to produce the President.”
Fayose, who said four years was not too much for the North to wait for the return of the presidency to the region, added that: “The unity and stability of the country should be paramount and no Nigerian must be made to see himself or herself as inferior to others as a result of tribal or religious inclination.”
The governor described Buhari as Tinubu’s stooge, saying: “Buhari has already handed over his presidency to Tinubu, his financier by going cap in hands, begging him (Tinubu) to nominate his running mate.”
He said by 2019, after President Jonathan must have completed his tenure, it will naturally be the turn of the North to produce the president, without any other region contesting it.
“By 2019, the presidency will go to the North, and it will be the choice of the leaders and stakeholders in the region to choose whoever that they want among the arrays of patriotic Nigerians that abound in the region.
“As it is today, Buhari that is going about presenting himself as representing the North is just a mere stooge of Tinubu, and I am sure Northern leaders will not want Tinubu to use their slot by proxy.
“That Buhari is not the candidate of the leaders of the Northern Nigeria was made manifest during the APC presidential primary, when Northern delegates gave their votes to Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, with Buhari getting his own delegate votes from South-west, South-South, South-East and part of North-Central.
“The North-West delegates voted for Kwankwaso while those from the North-East voted for Atiku, meaning that Buhari was imposed on the North as their candidate by delegates controlled by Tinubu and it was in appreciation of this that Buhari gave Tinubu the sole responsibility of picking his (Buhari) running mate, a ticket Tinubu tried to give to himself but failed and ultimately conceded to Prof Yemi Osinbajo, Tinubu’s surrogate,” Fayose said.
While calling on Northerners to vote massively for President Jonathan and the PDP in the presidential and other elections next month, Governor Fayose said: “The South-west had its own eight years, the South-south should be allowed to spend its own, while the North that was short-changed by those who knowingly masterminded the Yar’Adua saga will get its own chance in 2019.”
