A defeated All Progressives Congress presidential aspirant, Nicholas Felix, has lamented that the party’s flagbearer, Bola Tinubu, has refused to reach out to him after the party’s convention.
The youngest APC aspirant’s outburst came three weeks after the presidential primary held at Eagle Square in Abuja, adding that Tinubu’s snubbed him because he stepped down for Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and ‘didn’t support the idea of a possible Muslim-Muslim ticket’.
APC has stalled on picking a running mate for Tinubu due to the agitation from different factions of the country countering the idea of a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
“Asiwaju has not reached out to me. Neither has any member of his campaign team. No one has called me. I am about the only candidate Asiwaju has yet to meet. I don’t know the reason. Maybe it was because I stepped down for the vice president or didn’t support the idea of a possible Muslim-Muslim ticket,” Felix said.
Felix during the party’s convention had thrown his weight behind Vice President Yemi Osinbajo after he stepped down at the June 7 presidential primary.
Before he withdrew from the presidential race, Felix described Osinbajo as the ‘best man for the job’, adding that he strongly believed that he could turn the country around positively.
The APC presidential flag bearer had left the shores of the country for France on Monday.
Tinubu departed Nigeria shortly after a closed-door meeting with the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, in the morning.
Although Tinubu’s spokesman, Tunde Rahman, did not state how long the former Lagos State Governor would be away, there were insinuations that his travel must have something to do with the consultation for his running mate.
When contacted, the spokesman of Bola Tinubu Campaign Organisation, Bayo Onanuga, “Unfortunately, we all know Asiwaju is not in town. But Nigerians are aware of how he visited all the aspirants after the primary. Perhaps (he) was not in town. Maybe he was in America or somewhere. I don’t want to join issues with him.
“If Asiwaju has not reached out to him as he said, I am sure by the time he returns from France, he will cover up whatever gaps exist. I don’t want us to get dragged into that. It is possible that it is even an oversight. As a politician, he doesn’t neglect anybody or see people as not being important. I am sure it wasn’t a deliberate act or hidden agenda on his part. Everybody is important to him.”
