Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Presidential Candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has picked little-known Alhaji Kabir Ibrahim Masari as his placeholder running mate for the February 25, 2023 presidential poll.
Tinubu named Masari as a placeholder ahead of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deadline of June 17, 2022 for parties to submit the names of their candidates for the 2023 elections.
The “running mate” of the APC presidential candidate hails from Masari, a village in Kafur Local Government Area of Katsina State.
He is a kinsman of Rt. Hon. Aminu Bello Masari, governor of Katsina.
The running mate of the APC presidential candidate served as the National Welfare Secretary of the ruling party during the tenure of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as National Chairman.
Oshiomhole chaired APC from 2018 to 2020.
Tinubu’s “running mate” was a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the era of the late President Umaru Musa YarÁdua.
After the death of YarÁdua in 2010, Masari defected to the Congress for Progressives Change (CPC), the party under which President Muhammadu Buhari contested but lost the 2011 election.
Masari had worked for the president but ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, who stepped into office after YarÁdua’s death, won the election.
Ahead of the 2015 election, CPC collapsed its structure into APC and Masari joined the ruling party.
He was also involved in the election where an opposition party unseated a ruling party for the first time in the history of the country.
There are reports that Tinubu would replace Masari before the election as he only dropped his name to meet INEC’s deadline.
“Tinubu is still consulting widely on the choice of his running mate. He would replace Masari as soon as the right candidate is selected,” Daily Trust quoted a source to have said.
In a similar vein, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, had on Friday evening dropped the name of the Director General of his campaign, Dr Doyin Okupe, as his interim or placeholder running mate.
A substantive running mate is being searched for according to Okupe who confirmed that his name was forwarded to INEC to beat the Friday, June 17 deadline to parties for submission of list of candidates.
Meanwhile, former Vice-president Atiku Abubakar of the PDP had named Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate in the 2023 election.
The choice of Okowa is generating tension in the South-south zone and in the PDP.
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