The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that its choice of Prof. Yemi Osibanjo as running mate to General Mohammadu Buhari in 2015 general elections was arrived at based on democratic process that even the acclaimed largest party in Africa, the PDP has never had.
Buhari presented the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) pastor to the public last week after six days of political calculations out of four other contenders
Addressing journalists at his Abuja resident at the weekend, Deputy National Publicity Secretary of APC, Timi Frank, revealed that God himself chosen Osibanjo for the party
Timi said: “I don’t know who is complaining about the choice of our Vice Presidential candidate. But I believe that the choice of our Vice Presidential candidate was chosen by God because the time of change is now. When people ask why we take time in choosing our Vice President, I want to say that the delay was because we wanted to give the best candidate to Nigerians; it was because we wanted to follow a proper democratic process and never wanted to an imposed Vice Presidential candidate or one that will be hand picked by any individual.
“So, we consulted widely even outside the party. We consulted with people and Osibanjo emerged. You know that it was not just Osibanjo being considered. There were other persons and at the end of the day, we all unanimously agreed to settle for Osibanjo because this is the time we need change. This is the time we need men of integrity and experience and the time to balance political situation.
According to him, the issue of the Vice President is not all about structure, saying one can even be a presidential candidate who does not have structure.
“When Jonathan became the President of Nigeria, he had no structures. When Yar’adua became the President, he had no structures. Osibanjo today may not have structures. If is even better and because of his Christian background, he has a structure whether you like it or not. Redeem is one of the biggest Churches you can think if and has one of the largest followers in Nigeria today. That alone is a structure. It must not be a political structure, but he has alone can sell him.
“As far as we are concerned every other person that was considered to be the running mate are fantastic individuals who you cannot compare to the PDP vice Presidential candidate. So, I can tell you that we did not chose Osibanjo, it is God that chose him for us as Vice Presidential candidate at this point in time.”
Timi believe that the PDP is confused because they felt it would have been an easy beat if the APC field a Muslim/Muslim ticket.
“That was their calculation because they have turned Nigeria into a complex religious issue and issue of north and south. Before today, there was nothing wrong in fielding Muslim/Muslim ticket. During the 1993 elections, it was a Muslim/Muslim ticket that emerged. As a party, we try to take every religion along. It is not even the issue of religion, but we believe as a party that we should carry everybody along because we must do everything possible to win 2015.”
So, if that is the case and we pick a Muslim/Muslim ticket, we know that we will be playing into the hands of the PDP and that is what they are going to campaign with. So, we brought a candidate that they never expected would emerge. Successfully, we have announced our Vice Presidential candidate. Yes, people are saying that it is Bola Tinubu that brought Osibanjo.
“Let me tell you today that in politics, somebody must bring in somebody whether you like it or not. Was it not Obasanjo that brought Jonathan to limelight? Was it not Obasanjo that brought Umaru. So, the issue of Tinubu bringing Osibanjo anybody bringing Osibanjo does not play out in this context. The issue is that somebody has emerged and as far as we are concerned, the APC now has an impeccable Vice Presidential candidate, a man with character and fantastic background and a man that we believe can do the job and that is why we said unanimously that he should be our Vice Presidential candidate.”
