With the 2019 presidential election approaching, President Muhammadu Buhari has been told he is not assured to an automatic ticket from his party. This was the position of the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Tinubu said the laid-down democratic process of selection of candidate would be followed by the party. He added that he is sure this will sit well with the president who he said is a stickler for due process.
He made this statement on Wednesday in Akure in reaction to the endorsement of President Buhari as the sole candidate for the 2019 election by governors in the party.
Tinubu, who was in Akure for a meeting with the leaders of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, the Afenifere, said:“No governors can appropriate the power of endorsement to themselves. Buhari is a believer in the process.
The Buhari, I know, believes in the rule of law. We wanted him even before the last convention and primary of the party and Akeredolu is here standing with me, he was not the governor then. He was one of the leading delegates that voted properly and Buhari was a clear winner.
"We followed all the constitutional provision and an individual or group’s opinion does not really matter at this stage. Buhari will want a normal process. Buhari that I know, who says he will lose at any convention? But if the national body, the NEC (National Executive Committee) and all of us as members endorsed him as our single candidate, we will not be violating INEC regulations, we will not be violating our party constitution.
"What you are hearing is just a campaign by other people who might like to do so. Buhari has not excluded anybody, and he has not infringed on anybody’s ambition if there is. We can not be sycophantic about it.”