Why I chose Osinbajo as running mate – BUHARI

All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, unveiled his running mate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo as a man of unimpeachable integrity who he said would join him in restoring hope to the country’s citizenry.

He said Osinbajo was chosen after a rigorous process that involved the “establishment of objective criteria, broad consultations with party leaders and a few opinion leaders outside the party and interactions with a number of nominees.”

A national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who claimed to have been offered the position, however, said he declined not just as a sacrifice following insinuations on the dangers of a Muslim-Muslim ticket, but as his own patriotic contribution to seeing the end of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in power.

BUHARI'S RUNNING MATE—APC Presidential Candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari presenting his running mate Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, in Abuja.

BUHARI’S RUNNING MATE—APC Presidential Candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari presenting his running mate Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, in Abuja.

Less than an hour after Buhari unveiled his running mate at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, the PDP blasted the APC, saying the delay in making the choice was reflective of lethargy in the opposition party. The PDP said the choice was reflective of Buhari’s determination to surrender his powers to Tinubu.

Osinbajo, a Professor of Law, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, former Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General during the Tinubu administration is also a senior pastor at the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG and a confidant of the church’s leader, Pastor Enoch Adeboye.