How I Outsmarted Adamu, Delivered Tinubu As APC Presidential Candidate During Primary Election

A former National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Iyiola Omisore, has narrated how he ensured Asiwaju Bola Tinubu emerged as the party’s presidential candidate in the June 2022 party primary.

He said different regions and people came to the APC primary with different agendas, and as the highest-ranking official from the Southwest at that time, he had a ‘mission’ to ensure a South-Westerner secured the much-coveted party ticket.

According to Omisore, who spoke on Friday as a guest on a Channels Television programme, Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, he worked and outsmarted some others to ensure Tinubu emerged as the APC flagbearer.

He narrated that the then APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, wanted the North to retain the Presidency after the eight years of then President Muhammadu Buhari, who is from the North-West geopolitical zone.

“In politics, everybody has their mindsets, we came from different (geopolitical) zones to the NWC (National Working Committee) that time, representing differing different interests,” he said.

“I was the most senior member of the party in the South-West and my mandate was to deliver South-West for Presidency. Somebody from South-South too, his own mandate was to deliver South for Presidency, I want to assume so.

“So, my own was to get to my destination which I have gotten to today. The way and manner I did my journey is between me and God. I can’t castigate anybody who tried to be smart but if you want to be smart and I outsmarted you, to God be the glory. But the point is that my mission was to deliver the South-West for Presidency which we are today.”

Omisore said though Adamu backed a different aspirant, democracy prevailed during the primary election and every other thing is history now.

He said at the convention, “Democracy took place and democracy was respected. We voted, everybody had a choice and it was transparent. And the moment there is a transparent primary, there won’t be no noise; it is only when people feel cheated that they go to court.”

The former APC National Secretary said everything that happened in the buildup to the APC presidential primary was “all political”. He said, “Whatever we did then was for that time,” adding that the party had moved on to consolidating democratic gains for the benefit of Nigerians.

Naija News recalls that in the buildup to the APC presidential primary in June 2022, Adamu contoversially announced then Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, as the party’s “consensus candidate” but the announcement was strongly rejected by a league of northern governors who preferred Tinubu.

Tinubu eventually went on to win the keenly contested primary, and also the 2023 presidential election to emerge as the President of Nigeria.