There is reportedly anxiety in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the choice of Yemi Osinbajo as Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate.According to The Nation, the presidency were previously building its campaign against the All Progressives Congress (APC), based on the following points:
1. If the APC goes for a Moslem-Moslem ticket, the ruling party will brand the rivals as insensitive to Nigeria’s glaring religious divides;
2. A Southwest candidate will make it difficult for the PDP to win the zone’s sympathy. The APC chose has picked a son in-law of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who is revered even beyond the zone.
Therefore the ruling party got puzzled with the emergence of Osinbajo, whose “impeccable” personality crushed both plans, it was learnt.
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The PDP allegedly planned to use religious factor for the 2015 presidential campaign, however now they have to come up with a new idea.
It was gathered from the sources that the PDP tops had to get back to the drawing board.
According to one of the sources,
“There was gloom in PDP on Wednesday, following the announcement of Osinbajo. The calculation was that APC will be plunged into a crisis on the choice of its running mate, but that was not the case.
“The PDP had been looking for a slight mistake to brand APC a religious party after it could not sustain the bigot stigma on Gen. Buhari. Some attack dogs were on standby to hit the APC. All the plans have now failed.”
Another source narrated how the PDP wanted to use Awolowo’s name for campaign prosperity.
“By picking Osinbajo, the chances of PDP in the South-West have become slimmer because the party had wanted to take advantage of the political dynasty of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo to make an inroad into the region.
“The Presidency had tried to accommodate the grand son of the late sage, Mr. Segun Awolowo by making him the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Export Promotion Council(NEPC).
“But APC has also made the late Awolowo’s son-in-law as its vice-presidential candidate putting paid to any scheming by the PDP in the Southwest.”
One more source confirmed the information:
“With the emergence of Osinbajo , the PDP has returned to the drawing board. The ruling party is now left to base its campaign on issues than sentiments.”
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, was contacted on the issue. The official did not sound worried however.
“Who is Osinbajo? He was an ordinary commissioner and we have hundreds of commissioners in the country. The APC vice- presidential candidate is an unknown individual in politics. He is not a threat to PDP.
“One thing I know is that if it comes to issues and performance we will win the 2015 presidential election but if it comes to throwing anarchy or chaos, the APC will have upper hand.”
Buhari, after announcing Osinbajo as his running mate, said that “he [Osinbajo - Naij.com] is a man of impeccable integrity”.
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