By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor & Levinus Nwabughiogu

LEADERS of the All Progressives Congress, APC, were last night locked in a meeting in a race against time to present a running mate to the presidential candidate of the party, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari.

National chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, was nevertheless, confident when he addressed reporters, yesterday, that Buhari would present his running mate ahead of tomorrow’s deadline.

“It is not delayed, the candidate will speak to you. I have a feeling he will speak to you tomorrow. The party has consulted with the candidate and we have reached some agreement and he will address you on it,” Odigie-Oyegun said.

A caucus meeting of senior party figures which was deliberating on the matter was on-going as at press time.

Party insiders

The choice of a vice-presidential candidate had virtually been ceded to party leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu by Buhari but the choices reportedly made by him to Buhari and party officials were said to have been rejected. Tinubu, according to party insiders, had projected three names, with himself, his wife, Senator Remi Tinubu, and former commissioner for justice in Lagos State, Pastor Yemi Osinbajo. All three were rejected by party stakeholders and Buhari. Bola Tinubu was said to have been turned down on account of the party’s resolution on ethno-religious balance, while Senator Remi, even if well qualified was said to have been turned down for yet unspecified reasons.

Buhari and his associates were said to have turned down Professor Osinbajo on account of what one source said was his lack of electoral weight. As the meeting dragged on Monday night, the name of Brigadier-General Olagunsoye Oyinlola, (ret) former governor of Osun State also briefly came up but there was said to have been no consensus on it.

The mention of Oyinlola, it was learned, came after the Buhari camp raised the bar on the choice of a running mate to a person with sufficient electoral weight in the form of a serving governor or former governor. The inclination of the Buhari camp was also suggestive of the major influence of governors who are playing a large role in the unfolding Buhari campaign.

After the frustrations of picking an acceptable running mate from the South-West, party officials alongside senior Buhari aides were said to have taken the searchlight towards the South-South with Governors Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers State) and Adams Oshiomhole (Edo State) again under the radar.

Meanwhile, Team Tinubu was, yesterday, also said to be warming up to the prospect of presenting Oshiomhole as the choice of Asiwaju Tinubu on the strength of the affinity among the people of the Old Western Region.

“It is difficult but we can manage to sell Oshiomhole; after all we were all part of the same Western Region but Amaechi is damn too far,” one Tinubu aide told Vanguard, yesterday, before the commencement of the caucus meeting.

Fears in some sections that Oshiomhole may be too vibrant for Buhari were also being played down by Buhari aides with one of them saying, yesterday, that “the General is not one that wants to compete with others for the limelight if the person is doing his duty.

Socio-cultural differences

“You saw him with Idiagbon (late Major-General Tunde Idiagbon). So long as the work is done he doesn’t mind if his subordinate gets all the shine,” the Buhari associate said.

Party officials were saying that should Oshiomhole be invited to the ticket, the national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, who is from Edo State would have to step down. Beneath the veneer of socio-cultural differences in pushing Oshiomhole ahead of Amaechi, was the assertion among stakeholders of a beef between the Rivers State governor and Asiwaju Tinubu.

However, as the NWC meeting progressed last night, a senior Buhari aide confided in Vanguard that the permutation had again switched to the South-West as senior campaign officials showed a determination to push the bounce gotten from the South-West at the national convention into a momentum ahead of the general election.

One of the intrigues that unfolded, yesterday, was the revelation that some stakeholders in the party had presented one of the early names mentioned as a running mate, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora as a Muslim. Mamora, a member of the Baptist Church, it was gathered, yesterday, was one of the persons presented by Asiwaju Tinubu to guide the Buhari campaign. There were suggestions last night that he too may have come under consideration.

Irrespective of the procrastination, party stakeholders were saying, yesterday, that they were determined to get a running mate that would add value to the ticket that has pressed the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to an unprecedented pressure in what promises to be the toughest presidential election since the advent of the Fourth Republic.