Former Lagos State commissioner for
justice and attorney-general, Professor Yemi Osibajo, is being “strongly”
considered as the vice-presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress
(APC), TheCable can report.
APC has unofficially zoned its
presidential ticket to the north but with the candidate most likely to be a
Muslim, concern has been raised that the party was moving towards fielding a
Muslim-Muslim ticket.
This was
based on the assumption that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, a Muslim, was interested in
being the vice-presidential candidate. But Tinubu has since dropped his
ambition in the over all interest of APC.
South-west governors that could be considered for the running mate slot are all
Muslims. TheCable was informed that Osibajo has the backing of Tinubu, under
whom he served as commissioner from 1999 to 2007.
“The idea
was first mooted in 2013 when it became obvious that the presidential candidate
would come from the north,” a senior member of APC told TheCable. He, however,
said “there has been no movement since then”.
But TheCable understands that the idea has
been revived and, in fact, Osibajo has quietly started preparing in
anticipation of the likelihood of his candidature.
With the
APC tagged by its opponents as the Nigerian equivalent of Egypt’s Muslim
Brotherhood, Osibajo’s candidature is expected to give significant mileage to
the party in the Christian community. The professor of law is a pastor in the
Redeemed Christian Church of God ─ one of the largest churches in Nigeria.
Osibajo, who holds a bachelor of law from the University of Lagos and a
master’s from the London School of Economics, is highly regarded as an upright
man and is a regular speaker at local and international conferences. The senior
advocate of Nigeria (SAN) co-founded Integrity, the umbrella organisation of
the Convention on Business Integrity in Nigeria.
He is a scholar and has authored and
co-authored several publications, notably The Unification and Reform of The
Nigerian Criminal Law and Procedure Codes; Law Development and Administrator;
The Anotated Civil Procedure rules of The Supreme Courts in Nigeria and Cross
Examination.
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