"Only Tinubu Can Announce His Running Mate After Party Convention" - Basiru

 The National Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Ajibola Basiru, on Friday stated that President Tinubu enjoys an overwhelming endorsement from party stakeholders to run for re-election in 2027 but discussions for the choice of his running mate are not on the table yet.

New Telegraph recalls that on Sunday, June 15, during a summit for APC stakeholders from Nigeria’s North-East geopolitical zone, Vice Chairman, Mustapha Salihu, named Tinubu as the party’s sole candidate for re-election without mentioning Vice President Kashim Shettima.

Speaking in an interview on Channels Television, Bashiru a former Senate spokesman, stated that Tinubu’s running mate would be decided after the party’s convention which is usually held about one year before the general election.

The APC national secretary said he was physically present at the summit and what happened wasn’t strange as “people in a democratic setting are born to have different opinions”.

According to him, some people in the Northeast felt that it was sufficient to give endorsement to the president and then the president would be in a position to decide who would be his running mate in 2027.

“As far as we are concerned, the national summit held in the Presidential Villa has endorsed Mr President based on his track record and a large spectrum of stakeholders in our party have also overwhelmingly given endorsement to Mr President.

“The question of running mate is not yet onboard and nobody has come to say that the president has made any adverse decision as regards the present Vice President.

“Some other people are of the view that it is also important that since the summit is being held in the North East, the Vice President, coming from the North-East, should equally have an endorsement.

“What I know is that even at the national convention where a candidate for the presidential election will emerge, it is only the presidential candidate that will emerge at the convention.

“The running mate issue will be done after that. As far as our party is concerned, we have not made any statement or got ourselves involved in the politics of the North-East.”

At the 2023 presidential election, Tinubu, former Lagos governor, ran on a joint ticket with Shettima, a former governor of Borno State, in the North-East zone. The duo won the election and was sworn in on May 29, 2023.