The former Interim National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision not to accept the National Leader of the APC, Senator Bola Tinubu, as his running mate in 2015 was not the first time Tinubu would confront serious opposition to his vice-presidential ambition.
The former Osun State governor revealed that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar had also rejected the former Lagos State governor as running mate.
Akande revealed this in his recently released autobiography, titled: ‘My Participations,’ published by Gaskia Media Limited.
This is coming as Atiku at the weekend faulted Buhari’s development policies.
Akande narrated how Atiku, who was the presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress (AC) in 2007, was non-committal to the party elders’ decision despite all the pressure from the then Alliance for Democracy (AD) to make Tinubu his running mate.
In 2007, AC fielded the then Vice President Atiku, who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as its presidential candidate after his fallout with his boss at the time, President Olusegun Obasanjo, who did not want Atiku to succeed him.
According to Akande, despite the pressure mounted by the leaders of the party, including former Ogun State Governor, Mr. Segun Osoba; ex-Ekiti Governor, Mr. Niyi Adebayo and a one-time governor of Oyo State, the late Lam Adesina, Atiku never gave them his word on the matter until he picked Senator Ben O bi.
“It was the second time Tinubu was tantalisingly close to the VP slot. In 2007, we formed a party, the AC, with Abubakar Atiku. We agreed that Atiku should be our presidential candidate and we had the understanding that he would run with Bola Tinubu.
