Indications emerge on Friday that General Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate in the February 2015 presidential election will likely emerge on Monday or Tuesday.
General Buhari, who emerged as the All Progressives Congress’ flag bearer at the party’s national convention in Lagos on Thursday, has since begun consultations with leaders of the party to decide on his running mate.
The meetings continued last night.
It was learnt that contrary to speculations that the vice presidential slot had been conceded to the South-South, it has actually been reserved for a candidate from the South-West.
Shedding light on why the South-West may be favoured for the slot, a reliable source, who spoke in confidence, said: “Hopefully, Buhari’s running mate will emerge on Monday or Tuesday. We will make our position known by then.
“We are building consensus on the South-West as the zone to produce the vice-presidential candidate.
“You may be hearing of some names being dropped, we have not finalised discussion on who should be chosen. Our leaders are weighing the options on who to pick and they are extremely careful”.
Responding to a question, the highly-placed source added: “The slot is for the South-West, based on strategic political calculations.
“And if you look at the power sharing ratio in the country today, the South-West is short-changed. Even the Senate presidency zoned to the South-West was denied it at the last minute in June 2011.”
Another source in the camp of Buhari, said: “I think by all implications, the mate of the presidential candidate may be from the South-West.
“We have left the South-West chapter of the party to decide on who the cap fits”.
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