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Tinubu will lose because of Muslim-Muslim ticket, Nigeria is not Saudi Arabia -Baba-Ahmed

February 22, 2023 No Comments

Labour Party’s vice-presidential candidate Datti Baba-Ahmed says APC’s Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket featuring Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima will fail because of its faulty “configuration.”

Mr Baba-Ahmed argued that Nigeria is not a religious monolith like Saudi Arabia, Iran or the Vatican.

Mr Baba-Ahmed is a northern Muslim and running mate to Peter Obi (the Labour Party presidential flag bearer), a Christian from the South.

The vice-presidential standard-bearer stressed that Mr Tinubu lost out in his scheme to become President Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate in the 2015 presidential election because APC believed a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket would scuttle their potential victory at the polls.

“Why today Tinubu is not the vice-president of Nigeria is the same reason he cannot be president,” Mr Baba-Ahmed told Channels TV Tuesday night during an interview.

“What couldn’t happen in 2015 when the then-candidate Buhari asked for any nomination whatsoever from Tinubu – because that configuration has passed.

It can no longer work in Nigeria. (The) Muslim-Muslim ticket cannot work anymore.”

Mr Baba-Ahmed added;

“The creator of the heavens and earth does not make mistakes. This is the Federal Republic of Nigeria as duly filed at the United Nations and registered too. It’s not the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for example, or the Vatican or Iran or Libya or Mauritania. It’s a federal republic, and God didn’t make a mistake by putting all of us, 250 (tribes).”

Mr Tinubu’s choice of a Muslim running mate elicited scathing criticisms, with many accusing the APC of an agenda to Islamise Nigeria.

Lawan Babachir, an estranged Tinubu ally and APC chieftain, threatened that Christians would vote against the APC, describing the ruling party’s Muslim-Muslim ticket as “satanic.”

Last July, Peoples Gazette exclusively reported that the State Security Service, in a secret memo to Mr Buhari, warned that Mr Tinubu’s choice of a Muslim vice-presidential candidate (Kashim Shettima) would trigger a sectarian crisis that could destabilise Nigeria.

The All Progressives Congress Northern Christian leaders will be adopting a consensus candidate to defeat the All Progressives Congress’ Muslim-Muslim ticket.

The group led by Yakubu Dogara, a former speaker of the house of representatives, and Babachir Lawal, a former secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), had earlier expressed their disappointment over the decision of the APC to field a same-faith ticket.

A communique issued after their meeting this past weekend read;

“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.”