Gen Buhari Finally Settles For Prof Yemi Osinbajo As His Running Mate.

APC Presidential candidate Gen Buhari finally settled for a southern Christian lawyer Yemi Osinbajo to be his running mate in elections set for February 2015.
The choice of a Christian from the south to run for the number two job alongside a Muslim northern presidential candidate fits a common pattern in Nigerian elections, of trying to balance ethnic and religious sentiments to maximise appeal to voters.

This has brought to an end days of relentless speculation over who will be picked as the running mate to the APC presidential candidate. The choice of Osibajo, a professor of Law, has also at the same time put a lid on the vice presidential ambition of Rivers State governor, Rotimi Ameachi, who many believed had a chance of getting Buhari’s nod on account of his heavy financial investment in the Buhari presidential project.

According to reports as at Tuesday night, intense politicking threatened to mar the spirit in the party as Amaechi made a last-ditch effort but was told that he would lead Buhari’s campaign as Director-General. Relatively, Buhari insisted that he was not read to pick Muslim as his running mate.

Even though Amaechi, according to sources made a case for the south-south to be given the VP slot because of the likely backlash in the oil-producing region if President Goodluck Jonathan loses the election, Buhari said he had better roles to play for him. He reportedly told Buhari that it would be impossible for the APC to campaign in the Niger Delta with both No 1 and No 2 not on offer for .

Osibajo was said to have overcome last-minute challenge from other south-westerners such as former governors, Kayode Fayemi, Niyi Adebayo and Olagunsoye Oyinlola.Professor Yemi Osinbajo is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Senior Partner in the Law firm of SimmonsCooper Partners. A professor of law, he was the head of department of Public Law at the University of Lagos (1997-1999).His tertiary education was at the University of Lagos and the London School of Economics and Political Sciencewhere he obtained his LLB and LLM degrees respectively.