Muslim-Muslim Ticket: APC Northern Christians vow to scuttle Tinubu’s candidacy •To endorse another presidential candidate

There seems no relenting by Christians in the All Progressives Congress (APC) to punish their presidential candidate, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, for choosing Kashim Shettima, a fellow Muslim as his running mate in the 2023 election.

 

Fresh revelations indicate that they have decided to team up with other Christians in the region to form a coalition outside the ruling party, which would deliver another candidate from another political party, indicating that moves to settle the matter has largely failed.

 

Reports say that former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, who had railed against the ticket are mobilising other leaders of the Christian faith in the region to adopt a presidential candidate in a bid to defeat the ruling party’s Muslim-Muslim ticket.

 

Tinubu had sent tongues wagging when he announced Shettima’s choice, while emerging from President Muhammadu Buhari’s residence in Daura, Katsina State, on June 10, after paying him a Sallah homage, with the two most prominent APC top shots in the North, not only rebuking him for the strange choice, but vowing to counter it, if not reversed.

 

Announcing the new decision, after a meeting in Abuja, on Saturday, pair, said the unity of Nigeria could not be toyed with, adding that for national cohesion, the ticket must be totally defeated by all Nigerians.

 

A communique issued at the end of the meeting, said: “That we have agreed to work together with a view to fostering unity, peace and national cohesion. To work together and jointly adopt a pan-Nigerian political platform that will engender unity, inclusiveness and a sense of belonging among the Nigerian citizenry.

 

“Conscious of multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural configuration of Nigeria we believe that a same faith ticket and voting along religious lines may trigger dangerous dimensions of negative consequences among our disparate peoples in ways that will hamper nation building.

 

“Consequently, we have agreed to channel our energies on matters that unite us more as a people instead of encouraging attacks on sensitive issues bothering on religion in the name of politics.

 

“In view of the above, we have agreed to set up a committee with the mandate to fashion out strategies for advancing the objectives set forth in this resolution.”