APC presidential primaries: Why Nothern governors chose Tinubu over Amaechi, Osinbajo – El-Rufai

The Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has revealed why the North-West and North-East national delegates for the All Progressives Congress, APC presidential primaries, chose Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu instead of former Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi and Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo.

According to El-Rufai, governors of the North-West met and decided that Tinubu, who is the national leader of the APC, is the most sellable of the five Southern aspirants submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari.

And again, President Buhari refused to pick a particular candidate out of the five and insisted he asked the governors to allow the delegates decide, El-Rufai said.

The APC presidential primary was won by the former Lagos State Governor, Tinubu, who scored 1,271 to defeat his closest challenger, Amaechi, who polled 316 while Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, came only third in the primaries, polling 235.

And El-Rufai said it was so because the governors from the North-West resolved that Tinubu was the best bet and the North East also abided.

“I can’t say all of us stuck with Bola Tinubu. Not all of us were stuck with Bola Tinubu. In many of our states, the delegates’ votes were divided. And I went to address the Kaduna delegates for the last time before the voting,

“I don’t know how the delegates voted but the feedback I got after the voting is that most of them voted Asiwaju, some voted for Amaechi and some voted for Vice president, Osinbajo.

“But overall you can see that overwhelming, Asiwaju Tinubu won. I cannot say all the governors did that. We the Northwest governors met and we decided that our best bet, is the person we can most easily sell in our region, and that is Asiwaju Tinubu and this is why you see the pattern of the voting that way and where the North-West goes, the North East follows.”