Buhari Is Tinubu’s Candidate, North Will Pick Its Own In 2019 – Fayose

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has
described the All Progressives Congress (APC)
Presidential candidate, Major General Mohammadu
Buhari (rtd) as the candidate of former Lagos State
Governor, Senator Bola Tinubu.
In statement by his Special Assistant on Public
Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka,
Fayose said, “The people of northern Nigeria will
choose their own candidate in 2019 when it will be
the turn of the region to produce the President.”
Fayose, who said four years was not too much for
the North to wait for the return of the presidency to
the region, added that “the unity and stability of the
country should be paramount and no Nigerian must
be made to see himself or herself as inferior to
others as a result of tribal or religious inclination.
The governor described Buhari as Tinubu’s stooge,
saying; “Buhari has already handed over his
presidency to Tinubu, his financier by going cap in
hands, begging him (Tinubu) to nominate his
running mate.”
He said by 2019, after President Jonathan must
have completed his tenure, it will naturally be the
turn of the North to produce the president, without
any other region contesting it.
“By 2019, the presidency will go to the North, and it
will be the choice of the leaders and stakeholders in
the region to choose whoever that they want among
the arrays of patriotic Nigerians that abound in the
region.
“As it is today, Buhari that is going about presenting
himself as representing the North is just a mere
stooge of Tinubu, and I am sure Northern leaders
will not want Tinubu to use their slot by proxy.
“That Buhari is not the candidate of the leaders of
the Northern Nigeria was made manifest during the
APC presidential primary, when Northern delegates
gave their votes to Kano State Governor, Rabiu
Kwankwaso and former Vice President Atiku
Abubakar, with Buhari getting his own delegate
votes from Southwest, South-South, South-East and
part of North-Central.
“The North-West delegates voted for Kwankwaso
while those from the North-East voted for Atiku,
meaning that Buhari was imposed on the North as
their candidate by delegates controlled by Tinubu
and it was in appreciation of this that Buhari gave
Tinubu the sole responsibility of picking his (Buhari)
running mate, a ticket Tinubu tried to give to
himself but failed and ultimately conceded to Prof
Yemi Osinbajo, Tinubu’s surrogate,” Fayose said.
While calling on Northerners to vote massively for
President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP in the
presidential and other elections next month,
Governor Fayose said; “The South-West had its own
eight years, the South-South should be allowed to
spend its own, while the North that was short-
changed by those who knowingly masterminded the
Yar’Adua saga will get its own chance in 2019.”