2015 Election: Obasanjo, Goje advised APC against Tinubu as VP - Oyinlola

A former governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu would have been Nigeria's vice president in 2015 had ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo not advised the All Progressives Congress (APC) against it.

Obasanjo had explained that a Muslim-Muslim ticket would not have worked well to oust the government of his successor former president Goodluck Jonathan.

This was revealed by a former governor of Osun state and ex-military administrator of Lagos state, Olagunsoye Oyinlola in an interview with The Punch.

According to Oyinoloa, Obasanjo was initially opposed to President Muhammadu Buhari's return to power but he later gave in, only to hear about the combo of Buhari and Tinubu for 2015 presidential race.

Onyinlola recalled:

"We told him (Obasanjo) they (Buhari and Tinubu) were thinking of a Muslim-Muslim ticket. That was when Baba (Obasanjo) said people should not take the sensibilities of Nigerians for granted.”The former governor noted that Obasanjo was not alone in advising against the Buhari/Tinubu ticket.

A former Gombe state governor and now senator, Mohammed Danjuma Goje, also took a similar stand.

Goje said the party needed all the votes it could get to defeat Jonathan. A Muslim-Muslim ticket could alienate some voters, he explained.

Oyinlola added:

"He (Goje) said the APC would need every vote to upstage the incumbent, so nobody should toy with the idea of a Muslim-Muslim ticket and everybody concurred."And that was how Tinubu's hopes of being vice president in 2015 ended.