Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, has countered claims made by his Peoples Democratic Party counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, in relation to the Muslim-Muslim ticket and what transpired between them in the build-up to the 2007 presidential elections.

Abubakar had in an interview with Arise TV on Friday morning claimed that he rejected Tinubu as his running mate in 2007 because he is opposed to fielding a Muslim-Muslim ticket in the interest of the country’s unity.

“My fundamental disagreement and political departure with Asiwaju [Tinubu] since 2007 was due to the Muslim-Muslim ticket. Remember, I opted out of PDP because of zoning, and together with Asiwaju we formed ACN,” Abubakar said in the interview.

“Tinubu wanted to be my running mate when I was given the ACN presidential ticket in 2007, but I disagreed. And because of that, he switched his support to the late Umar Yaradua. That was the parting point.”

Tinubu, however, slammed the claim in a statement by his media aide Tunde Rahman on Saturday.

He accused Abubakar of demeaning himself by pandering to base prejudice at a moment Nigeria needs true leadership.

The statement read in part, “We are saddened to see such a man become unhinged from the truth. So obsessed is he with his quest for office, Atiku is willing to render any form of untruth if he thinks it might gain him a single vote. Atiku may want to be president. However, all he has shown is that he is pathological.

“Whatever moral compass he had has been lost. During a 22 July television interview, Atiku assaulted historic truth by lying that he did not name Tinubu as his running mate in 2007 on the Action Congress ticket because Atiku did not want a Muslim as his running mate.”

Tinubu explained that contrary to Abubakar’s position, he and the then Action Congress of Nigeria had helped him out in 2007 after he was frozen out by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and forced out of the PDP.

He said, “I feel sorry for dear old Atiku. Love of his own ambition has eclipsed his relationship with the truth and an honest account of the past. We formed the AC without his knowledge. When President Obasanjo virtually exiled him from the PDP, we lent him our support by giving him the AC platform for the 2007 election.

“Let me say openly that Atiku offered me the vice presidential ticket in 2007. Let me also say that my religion has not changed. When he offered the position to me, I was a Muslim and I believe he was aware of my religious faith at the time.”

Read the full statement below:

PRESS STATEMENT
Atiku demeans himself, office he seeks by pandering to base prejudice at a moment Nigeria needs true leadership – Tinubu

All Progressives Congress Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, says all Nigerians should feel great pity and sadness for the candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

In his desperate attempt to win the election by stoking religious bias, Atiku has reduced himself to uttering baseless lies on national television.

“We are saddened to see such a man become unhinged from the truth. So obsessed is he with his quest for office, Atiku is willing to render any form of untruth if he thinks it might gain him a single vote. Atiku may want to be president. However, all he has shown is that he is pathological,” the APC presidential candidate said in a statement on Sunday by his Media Office signed by Mr. Tunde Rahman.

“Whatever moral compass he had has been lost. During a 22 July television interview, Atiku assaulted historic truth by lying that he did not name Tinubu as his running mate in 2007 on the Action Congress ticket because Atiku did not want a Muslim as his running mate.”

Responding to the false account of PDP Presidential candidate, Tinubu set the record straight. He recalled that Atiku was not among those who founded the Action Congress.

“It was the actual founders of the AC who offered the party’s flag to Atiku because of the need to fight the authoritarian designs then President Obasanjo and the PDP had on Nigeria’s democracy.

“At that moment, Atiku had been unceremoniously pushed aside if not out of the PDP by Obasanjo. We needed to rally all forces to confront the one-party state Obasanjo had in mind. Atiku was simply a beneficiary of this collective duty to fight the attack on multi-party democracy the PDP had launched.

“I feel sorry for dear old Atiku. Love of his own ambition has eclipsed his relationship with the truth and an honest account of the past. We formed the AC without his knowledge. When President Obasanjo virtually exiled him from the PDP, we lent him our support by giving him the AC platform for the 2007 election.

“Let me say openly that Atiku offered me the vice presidential ticket in 2007. Let me also say that my religion has not changed. When he offered the position to me, I was a Muslim and I believe he was aware of my religious faith at the time.
“Atiku’s calculations and deceit had nothing to do with religion or his sensitivity to it. His conduct has everything to do with what we discovered about his paucity of character and love of intrigue.

“True to form, Atiku, fifteen years later, promised HE Governor Nyesom Wike the same thing this electoral season and similarly reneged. Governor Wike is a Christian.

“When it comes to intrigue, we can say that Atiku is without bias. He will attempt to lie and deceive both Christian and Muslim with equal vigour.

“Atiku has no business raising the issue of a Muslim-Muslim ticket except as a hypocrite. Perhaps he believes people have forgotten his antics during the 1993 election. After he woefully lost his bid to be the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, what did he do? He canvassed and lobbied harder than anyone to become the running mate to late Chief MKO Abiola. When it benefitted him personally, Atiku did not see anything wrong with Muslim-Muslim ticket. He saw everything right in such a ticket as long as he was on it.

“Now, Atiku criticizes my selection as running mate based on religion. He does so because he cannot criticize it on other grounds. If Atiku were to have one of his rare moments of honesty, he would admit that the person I selected as my running mate is more qualified for the position than the man who joined him. And this conclusion has nothing to do with religious faith. It has everything to do with competence, experience, ability, and vision.

“My running mate and I are here to build a more just and prosperous society for all Nigerians, be they Christian, Muslim or adherents of other faiths. It seems that Atiku is here trying to build an edifice of lies and call that the house into which Nigerians should walk and reside. He will fail in this sad attempt to trick an entire nation.

“Let me restate my position on religion and politics. When I decided that Senator Shettima was the best selection as my running mate, I listened to and weighed in serious balance the advice received from a broad and representative array of wonderful Nigerians who deeply care about this nation and the path it must go.

“Some people counselled that I should select a Christian to garner support of the Christian community. Some said I should select a Muslim for a similar reason. I clearly could not do both. Both positions had merit and right on their side. But neither position expressed what was most right and needed for the moment in which we find ourselves and the nation.

“All my life, the decisions regarding the team supporting me have always been guided by the principles of competence, innovation, compassion, integrity, fairness, and adherence to excellence. I was not going to depart from these principles at this important juncture. In fact, it was more important than ever before that I adhere to these principles.

“As Governor of Lagos State, these principles helped me assemble one of the most capable governing cabinets any state or this nation has seen. I trust in these principles to allow them to, once more, guide me to construct another exemplary team that can do Nigeria proud.

“In this crucial moment, where so much is at stake, we must prioritize leadership, competence, and the ability to work as a team over other considerations.

“This is the standard I will use to select the rest of my campaign team and if you elect me as your president when I staff my government. I will select the best people for the right jobs so that we can construct a better Nigeria now and for generations yet to come.”