As part of the efforts to beat the Friday June 17 deadline given by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to political parties to submit the names of presidential candidates and their running mates, the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu has allegedly submitted the name of Katsina State governor, Kabir Ibrahim Masari as his running mate.
It was, however, gathered that the name of Masari, who hails from the home State of President Muhammadu Buhari, would later be changed after the party stakeholders must have agreed on the suitable vice-presidential candidate for the 2023 elections.
A party source confirmed to Newsmen that it was true that Tinubu has submitted the name of his running mate, but added that “consultation is still ongoing.”
It was further gathered that the move by Tinubu and the ruling party was to meet the statutory requirement and beat the deadline set by the electoral umpire.
However, Tinubu today meet President Muhammadu Buhari as consultation continues on the issue of his running mate.
There have been strong opposition against the issue of Muslim-Muslim ticket been mulled by the ruling party.
Though some names had been mentioned as possible running-mates to the former Lagos State governor, it was gathered that no compromise had been reached yet.
A source in the Tinubu’s camp told Newsmen that all the northern governors want the position.
The source added that if Tinubu has his way, he would have loved to pick the former Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima as his running-mate, but he want the input of the the president and the governors.
The source said: “All northern governors want it. If Asiwaju have his way, it will be Senator Kashim. But he wants the president and governors to pick for him.”
Asked why Tinubu does not want to pick his running mate himself, the source stressed he didn’t want to be a ‘winner takes it all.’
“He does not want to be the winner takes it all. You need to respect the President. PMB did not choose a VP for himself in 2015,” the source said.
Party sources told newsmen that, Hon. James Faleke, a strong leader of the Tinubu team was at the party secretariat yesterday, but his mission was not known.
But the source confirmed that Faleke was at the party secretariat yesterday to collect INEC’s form for the presidential and vice presidential candidates to be filled.
Asked if Faleke was there to submit the name of the running mate to Tinubu, the source insisted that no compromise had been reached in the issue of running mate.
“When the decision is made, it would be made known to all and the decision would be made tomorrow (today),” he added.
