Tanko Yakasai, elder statesman
and political adviser in the second Republic, says the ruling All Progressives
Congress (APC) might field Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo or Bola Tinubu, a
national leader of APC, in 2023.
Speaking with The Interview,
Yakasai said the region played a key role in the emergence of Buhari in 2019.
On the possibility of the APC
fielding a presidential candidate from the south-east in 2013, Yakasai said the
region will be sidelined for the south-west.
“The current calculation is that
the vice-president is from the Southwest. Clearly, there is an unwritten
understanding that when Buhari finishes, the Vice President will likely be the
next presidential candidate of the APC,” he said.
“The Vice President is a Yoruba
man. Even if it is not Osinbajo, somebody from there, probably Tinubu, will
likely emerge as the candidate of the party.
“And with the performance of the
party in the southeast, I don’t see any possibility that the party will think
of giving its candidacy to the southeast as against the support it earned from
the southwest.
“Apart from voting, don’t forget
that there were some material support which APC enjoyed from the Southwest.”
Defending his choice of Atiku
Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the elections, the elder
statesman said he supported Atiku
because of his experience in governance and business.
Yakasai was asked: “You supported
former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the PDP at the just concluded
election. Do you believe the eventual winner, Muhammadu Buhari, won fair and
square?”
He replied: “No, I do not. Quite
alright, I supported Atiku because I don’t believe that Buhari has the capacity
and the competence to handle the Nigerian problem.”
On the issue of the leadership of
the 9th senate, Yakasai said it would not favour theAll Progressives Congress
(APC) to insist on Ahmed Lawan.
Lawan, senate majority leader,
has been given the blessings of the APC to succeed Bukola Saraki as the leader
of the red chamber.
Yakasai said he expected the
ruling party to have learnt from its mistakes.
He argued that the lawmakers
should be allowed to who will lead them, and not a person imposed on them.
“Well, they have been touting
this idea for a long time. Remember when the current Senate was convened after
the 2015 election, they wanted Ahmad Lawan to be the Senate president,” he
said.
“It was the rupture in the party
that led a chunk of party senators to team up with PDP senators to get Bukola
Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu as president and deputy president of the Senate.
“What I am surprised about, I
thought what happened to them in the last dispensation would have been a lesson
for them to allow legislators to decide who should be their leaders.
“I worked with National Assembly
for four years. I know the mindset of members of the National Assembly. They
believe that they have their own mandate separate from the mandate of the
President.”
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