Amaechi blames missed alliances for 2022 APC presidential defeat
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Business Day Nigeria
Rotimi Amaechi, African Democratic Congress vice-presidential candidate, says his lack of campaigning and political alliances cost him the APC presidential nomination in 2022. He made the assessment in an interview in Lagos, according to Business Day Nigeria.
Rotimi Amaechi, vice-presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), attributes his defeat in the 2022 presidential primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to his failure to campaign and negotiate with party leaders. He says he followed the advice of former president Muhammadu Buhari, who had allegedly promised in writing to choose him as the candidate, during an interview broadcast on Friday on Mainland 98.3FM in Lagos, Business Day Nigeria reports.
Amaechi believes he could have secured the support of governors by offering them, among other positions, the posts of vice-president and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF). According to him, his refusal to conclude such deals left Bola Tinubu the opportunity to forge the necessary alliances before the June 2022 primary, which he won to secure the APC nomination.
The former transport minister also accuses Tinubu of using religious arguments to rally delegates, particularly in northern Nigeria. He says a delegation of Yoruba Muslims from the South had approached governors in the North-West to support Tinubu on that basis, while saying he himself refused to use religion as an electoral tool because of his nationalist convictions.
