On October 19, 2022, the All Progressives Congress (APC) launched the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council (PCC). The council was chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari and included other APC heavyweights like the Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai, Kano State governor Abdullahi Ganduje, Minister for Works Babatunde Fashola and the Senate President Ahmed Lawan.
One big name was missing from the list. The vice president and former protege of Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT), Yemi Osinbajo. In June 2022, Osinbajo contested against BAT and 12 other aspirants at the APC Presidential primaries. BAT won with 1271 delegate votes ahead of Rotimi Amaechi, who finished second with 316 votes and Osinbajo, who finished a distant third with 235 votes.
While the APC primaries were a coronation for BAT, Osinbajo didn’t leave without taking shots at his boss. Nigerians who followed the primaries will remember that speech.
How have things played out since then?
Campaigns have been going on since October, but neither Osinbajo nor several other contenders at the primaries have been seen with BAT on his campaign trail. Notable absentees include Rotimi Amaechi, Tunde Bakare and Rochas Okorocha. For Osinbajo, though, it has been a bit of a cat-and-mouse game.
In October 2022, BAT speaking in Kano said he had forgiven Osinbajo which suggests there was some beef. However, both of them have subtly ignored each other. For instance, at the conclusion of the APC primaries, BAT saluted other APC members but skipped Osinbajo. He shook hands with him following the prompting of House Speaker Femi Gbajamiala.
Osinbajo must have kept that snub in mind and retaliated a few months later. At the burial ceremony of the mother of Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, high-profile APC politicians were in attendance, including BAT. Osinbajo also ”forgot” him when paying respect to the dignitaries before acknowledging his “error”.
On December 21, 2022, Osinbajo visited BAT in Abuja. It was the first time outside public functions that the duo met since his defeat at the primaries. The meeting was described as not being a political one but in the spirit of the Christmas season.
Regardless, Osinbajo has continued to stay away from BAT’s campaign.
So where are Osinbajo and the others?
Osinbajo has mostly been ‘focused’ on his work, travelling for functions and heading Nigeria’s energy transition plan. Anything to keep him far away from BAT.
He’s not alone, either. No one has heard from Rotimi Amaechi, who was Buhari’s campaign director-general for the 2015 and 2019 elections. There are rumblings that Amaechi has not been “treated fairly” by BAT.
Fashola seems more concerned with inspecting and delivering road projects rather than votes for BAT.
Okorocha who was excluded from the PCC said he has “subtle ways of campaigning” for the party.
Bakare still believes he’ll be Buhari’s successor or “number 16” following his prediction that he’d be Nigeria’s 16th president. We don’t know how, as he scored zero votes at the APC primaries, but one can never say never.
