Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, has accused those who criticized his choice of Senator Kashim Shettima as his running mate of lobbying him for the vice-presidency.
WITHIN NIGERIA, Babachir Lawal, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Tinubu’s close ally, called the decision to field a Muslim-Muslim ticket a “disastrous error.”
Yakubu Dogara, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives who was opposed to the idea, urged Christians in Nigeria not to vote for the APC candidate in the 2023 election.
Tinubu stated during an interactive session with the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Abuja, led by Archbishop Daniel Ukoh, that his close friends expressed interest in becoming his running mate, but he politely declined.
The APC presidential candidate denied claims in some quarters that he intended to Islamize Nigeria by selecting Shettima as Vice President.
He said;
People have reacted harshly to my selection. They are because they are my friends, they lobbied me and wanted to be my running mate but I bluntly rejected them. The rumour that this is some plot to suppress the Christian community is untrue and unfortunate. I don’t have that kind of agenda. The bucks stop on my table, not on the vice- president’s table unless so delegated. He cannot even forgive convicted inmates if I don’t delegate the power to him. What is the vice- president?
I can no more suppress the Christians of this nation than I can suppress the Christians in my own household, my very family. I dare not contest the presidential position in my house because I will lose, they are all Christians. If I did not Islamise my family, I cannot Islamise Nigeria. It is awful to hear such allegations. We cannot make progress if we continue to follow that path in the country. Religions will not help us. It won’t do any good to us.
The former Lagos State governor appealed for the Christian leader’s support, stressing that Christian-Muslim ticket doesn’t work all the time.
Tinubu said;
We are all here and witnessed Obasanjo and Atiku publicly fighting. We are asking for your votes; think twice, look at our records, and the way we have behaved in one office before the other before you take a decision. How best has a Christian and a Muslim President worked for Nigeria? Maybe one of these days we will have a Christian/Christian ticket. The person that I know will help me in the election is the person I have chosen.
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