A former presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress, Dr Nicholas Felix, has raised the alarm that the party’s standard-bearer, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has shut him out of his campaign ahead of the 2023 general election.
The youngest APC aspirant’s outburst came three weeks after the convention held at Eagle Square in Abuja.
Felix had thrown his weight behind Vice President Yemi Osinbajo after he stepped down at the June 7 presidential primary.
Before he withdrew from the presidential race, Felix described Osinbajo as the ‘best man for the job’, adding that he strongly believed that he could turn the country around positively.
Against his expectation, Tinubu defeated Osinbajo, former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and 11 other aspirants to clinch the party’s sole presidential ticket.
“Asiwaju has not reached out to me. Neither has any member of his campaign team. No one has called me. I am about the only candidate Asiwaju has yet to meet. I don’t know the reason. Maybe it was because I stepped down for the vice president or didn’t support the idea of a possible Muslim-Muslim ticket,” he added.
The APC presidential flag bearer had left the shores of the country for France on Monday.
Tinubu departed Nigeria shortly after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, in the morning.
Although Tinubu’s spokesman, Tunde Rahman, did not state how long the former Lagos State Governor would be away, there were insinuations that his travel must have something to do with the consultation for his running mate.
When contacted, the spokesman of Bola Tinubu Campaign Organisation, Bayo Onanuga, “Unfortunately, we all know Asiwaju is not in town. But Nigerians are aware of how he visited all the aspirants after the primary. Perhaps (he) was not in town. Maybe he was in America or somewhere. I don’t want to join issues with him.
“If Asiwaju has not reached out to him as he said, I am sure by the time he returns from France, he will cover up whatever gaps exist. I don’t want us to get dragged into that. It is possible that it is even an oversight. As a politician, he doesn’t neglect anybody or sees people as not being important. I am sure it wasn’t a deliberate act or hidden agenda on his part. Everybody is important to him.” (Punch)
