Author: Phlippages
Since the All Peoples Congress (APC) presidential candidate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced his running mate Senator Kashim Shettima all hasn’t been well withing the party (APC), especially since Sunday when its flagbearer, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, announced Senator Kashim Shettima as his running mate. That choice of Muslim-Muslim ticket has elicited spirited and passionate reactions from different quarters.
What appears to be a crack within the fold of the APC emerged, on Tuesday night, when former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and a Tinubu ally, Babachir Lawal, who headed the panel set up to assist Asiwaju pick a running mate, rejected the choice of the former Borno State Governor, Shettima, describing the all-Muslim pairing as a disastrous error.
While the APC national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, on Wednesday, described the Muslim-Muslim ticket as an act of God, assuring that Christians have nothing to fear, the party, yesterday, postponed the official unveiling of Shettima as its vice presidential candidate for the 2023 general election.
Shetima was scheduled to have been presented to party members at the APC national secretariat, Abuja, yesterday, but an APC official told reporters the event had been moved forward with no official explanation.
Sources said this might not be unconnected to the barrage of criticisms from concerned Nigerians, religious leaders, opposition parties and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) over the choice of Shettima and that the APC leadership may consider dropping him for a Northern Christian.
VICE President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Ichie Damian Okeke-Ogene, has described the Muslim-Muslim ticket as a serious threat to the unity and corporate existence of Nigeria. Addressing reporters in Awka, Okeke-Ogene, however, Tinubu that it is not too late to correct the anomaly as he could change his running mate before the deadline.
A pro-democracy group, The Nigerian Agenda for Inclusion (TNAI), has equally dared Tinubu to test the feelings of the Muslim community in Lagos State with a Christian-Christian ticket.
TNAI, in a statement on Thursday, signed by its co-Convener, Alexander Obisesan, described Lagos as a reflection of Nigeria’s religious diversity and a fine place for Tinubu to test the “alternative reality of his unthoughtful action with a Christian-Christian ticket.”
In another reaction, National Secretary of Social Democratic Party (SDP), Dr. Olu Agunloye, said Muslim-Muslim ticket is not the issue but that the manner Buhari’s government has polarised the country along ethnic and religious lines in the last seven and half years is generating the fear and mistrust.
