Secretary to Lagos State Government, Tunji Bello, has described the book, ‘ Muhammadu Buhari: Challenges of Leadership in Nigeria’ in honor of the President as a compendium of half-truths and lies.<\/p>\n
The book, \u00a0written by Professor John Paden, had faulted claims that Bola Tinubu was behind the pick of VP, Yemi Osibajo.
\nThe author alleged that contrary to the claim, it was Tinubu who pressured Buhari to make him his running mate.
\nHe wrote: \u201cWith Buhari coming from the northwest geopolitical zone, the vice-presidency had been ceded to the southwest geopolitical zone. Tinubu felt he should be the vice-presidential candidate.\u201d
\n” His protegee, Babatunde Fashola was also a possible candidate. Both Fashola and Tinubu are Muslims which complicated the national balance. A third candidate, Osibajo, had been Attorney general, senior law Professor, and pastor.\u00a0 When the three names were forwarded to Buhari, he chose Osibajo despite enormous pressure from Tinubu”
\nBut according to Bello , Nigerians were fed with half-truths by Paden on how Osibanjo became the Vice President, detailing how Tinubu summoned a meeting to decide who would be Buhari\u2019s running mate the morning after the president emerged the APC candidate.
\nBello named the party chieftains in attendance to include former APC National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, former Commissioner for Information & Strategy, Mr. Dele Alake, Osinbajo and a renowned pastor.
\nHe said: \u201cI do not know how the author came about his story, but he totally got it wrong because what he wrote basically is based on falsehood that reeks of deliberate misinformation and mischief.\u201d
\nHe explained how he received a phone call from Asiwaju \u201cto see him the morning after Buhari emerged the APC candidate. On my way to his house, I discovered that a car at a reasonable distance was that of former Lagos State Commissioner for Information & Strategy, Mr. Dele Alake, who was, ostensibly, heading towards Asiwaju\u2019s house in Ikoyi.
\n\u201cAsiwaju must have called him too for that task that could be explained underneath. As soon as we arrived, Asiwaju quickly asked us to join him in his car as we headed to a Guest House. At the Guest House, former APC Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, Osibajo and one renowned pastor joined us.
\n\u201cAt the meeting, Asiwaju related to us the urgent need to pick a Vice Presidential candidate for the APC. He advised that we immediately discard the idea of his being nominated for the vice-presidential slot as it was no longer possible to pick a muslim-muslim ticket.
\n\u201cThis, he reasoned, made sense if indeed we were to be realistic in our bid to defeat President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 election. He reasoned that what was important and imperative at that time was to look for a good Christian nominee to complement President Mohammadu Buhari.
\n\u201cI remember Baba Akande responded to his aversions that he would still have preferred that Asiwaju should be the running mate since it had been done before. Baba Akande was obviously referring to the MKO Abiola\/ Babagana Kingibe nomination.\u201d
\n\u201cIt was at this point that Asiwaju reminded us to be fast in coming up with an option because he felt other geographical zones are also jostling for same position, reiterating the need for the Southwest to get it as a must.\u201d
\n\u201cHaving been married to late Obafemi Awolowo\u2019s grand-daughter, it would not be a problem selling him to the old political establishment of southwest for acceptance. He asserted that Alake and myself having served in his cabinet could attest to the great works he did as Attorney General during his, Asiwaju\u2019s administration as Governor of Lagos State.
\n\u201cHe also reasoned that the second major factor in favour of Osibajo was the fact that he is a strong Christian and one that he is already a Pastor at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).
\n\u201cIn the long run, Osibajo\u2019s nomination was well received by all of us at that meeting and Professor Osibajo was asked to start detailing with us, further strategy sessions to which he brought out his laptop and we all commenced a brainstorming session.
\n\u201cThe rest of the discussion was to strategise on how to contain other likely opponents from the southwest zone before proceeding to Abuja to battle other regional zones in the coming nomination.
\n\u201cThe meeting did not finish until about 9.00pm when we returned to Asiwaju\u2019s residence in Bourdillon. By the time we returned to his house, there were about six serving Governors already waiting to see him from different parts of Nigeria,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Secretary to Lagos State Government, Tunji Bello, has described the book, ‘ Muhammadu Buhari: Challenges of Leadership in Nigeria’ in honor of the President as a compendium of half-truths and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n