Former Chief of Staff Professor Ibrahim Gambari has stated that ex-President Muhammadu Buhari did not believe in personally selecting a successor for the 2023 election.
Gambari made these remarks during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, addressing claims that Buhari misled other aspirants about his preferred candidate.
Gambari recounted a specific meeting where all 19 northern state governors approached Buhari after endorsing a power shift to southern Nigeria.
The governors sought to know if the president had an anointed candidate.
According to Gambari, he personally conveyed their question to Buhari and was present for the president’s response.
“He said, ‘I do not have an anointed candidate for president to be a successor,’” Gambari stated. “That’s what he told them, and that is what I know from being there.”
Gambari emphasized that he could only speak to what he witnessed directly and was not privy to any private conversations Buhari may have had afterwards with individuals.
In the June 2022 APC primary, Bola Tinubu defeated other contenders, including former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and former Minister Rotimi Amaechi, and later won the general election.
Dele Fashomi, seasoned journalist and communication teacher, is a holder of Master of Arts degree in Communication and Language Arts from the University of Ibadan in 1992/93.
Earlier, he had bagged a Bachelor degree from the same university in 1984, after which he proceeded to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos, in 1990, for a postgraduate diploma in Journalism.
He had done many courses in communication, including the EU-BBC Editing Course in 2002.
Mr. Fashomi combines effectively the practice, research and teaching of communication. And to date, he has published two academic works in communication: Issues in Communication Technology and Policy (2010) and Economic and Social Issues in Advertising and PR (2013).
He had his first break in the Nigerian media in Concord Newspapers in 1990 and today, he has over two and half decades experience earned in several newspapers.
He has been part of many start-ups, such as The Republic (1987), The Comet (1999), The Anchor 2001 – 2002; Sun Newspapers (2003); Westerner newsmagazine (2005 – 2010) as Editor; National Life (2011) as Sunday Editor, and Newswatch Newspapers (2012- 2016) as Daily Editor.
Dele Fashomi is now the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Newstide247.com newspaper online, which he started in July 2015. He is also into biography writing, with many books in his trail, some of which he wrote alone and one he co- authored with his mentor, Mr Dare Babarinsa, entitled: Olabiyi Durojaiye – DARE TO BE DiFFERENT. He also guided and collaborated with Pa Olatunji Odusanya in writing his autobiography – AGAINST ALL ODDS. There are many other books in the works under his pen.
