Former Nigerian transport minister Rotimi Amaechi says he regrets limiting his 2022 All Progressives Congress presidential campaign because, he says, then-President Muhammadu Buhari promised to name him as his preferred candidate.
At the party’s June 2022 convention in Abuja, contemporary reports put Bola Tinubu at 1,271 votes, Amaechi at 316 and then-Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at 235. The primary selected the APC’s nominee for Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election. The reports record the result but do not show what influenced individual delegates.
In an interview Friday, Nov. 6, with Mainland 98.3 FM’s The Situation Room, Amaechi said Buhari told him not to campaign and said he would announce him as his preferred candidate. Amaechi said Buhari put the assurance in writing and that he plans to publish it in a book. He said in hindsight that holding back damaged his chances against Tinubu.
Amaechi said he avoided bargaining with governors and other party figures over potential posts, including the vice presidency and Secretary to the Government of the Federation. “Because I didn’t do deals, Tinubu had a chance to do deals,” he said, arguing that his approach gave Tinubu more room to build alliances.
Amaechi also alleged that a delegation of Southern Yoruba Muslims urged North-West governors to support Tinubu on religious grounds, citing former Kaduna State Gov. Nasir El-Rufai. He said he would not invoke religion to mobilize voters.
Former Osinbajo spokesman Laolu Akande offered a separate account of Buhari’s support during the primary campaign. In an Oct. 17 statement, Akande said Buhari had offered to back Osinbajo at least four times and praised his campaign. Akande’s statement addressed Buhari’s relationship with Osinbajo but did not say whether the president made a separate assurance to Amaechi.
