…CAN rejects, insists Muslim-Muslim ticket not suitable for Nigeria
…Nothing Wrong With Mulim- Muslim Ticket – Ladoja
The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has announced Senator Kashim Shetima as his running mate in the 2023 general elections.
He made the announcement on Sunday in Daura, the hometown of President Muhammadu Buhari in Katsina State.
Tinubu, who was a former governor of Lagos State briefed reporters at the end of a close-door meeting that lasted about an hour with the President at his residence.
According to him, the choice of picking Shettima as his running mate is because of the former Borno State governor’s competency, capability, and reliability.
The APC presidential candidate was accompanied to Daura by Governor Aminu Masari shortly after his aircraft landed at the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Airport in Katsina State.
In a reaction, in support of Tinubu’s action on picking a fellow Muslim, The former governor of Oyo State, Rashidi Ladoja, has said that he has no time to fight traditionalists or bother himself about Muslim-Muslim ticket in the 2023 presidential election as he sees nothing wrong with having a President and Vice President belonging to the same religion.
Rather than worry about Muslim-Muslim ticket, the former governor appealed to Nigerians to embark on prayers for the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, so he would not be treated like late MKO Abiola.
In the 1993 presidential election in Nigeria, Abiola, a Southwestern Muslim, who contested for president with a northern Muslim, Baba Gana Kingibe, as his running mate, won the election but died in prison in 1998 without getting to the Presidential Villa as the election was annulled by the military dictator, Ibrahim Babangida.
However, The Christian Association of Nigeria has reacted to the Muslim-Muslim ticket that was finalized by the All Progressive Congress on Sunday.
Reacting to Newsmen’s request for comment on Sunday, CAN stated that its position remains unchanged.
“The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has stated it clearly that the situation in the country now is not suitable for a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
“It is up to Nigerians to accept or reject. Today’s Nigeria is not the same when Nigerians voted Abiola-Kingibe ticket which was eventually annulled.
“Our prayers are with Nigeria and Nigerians,” Special Assistant (Media and Communications) to the CAN President, Rev Dr Samson Ayokunle, Pastor Adebayo Oladeji, stated.
Meanwhile, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) had on June 11 urged Tinubu to go for competence, not religion.
The Muslim group advised Tinubu to listen to the counsel of the Northern governors who backed his emergence as the APC presidential candidate.
It stated, “While we submit that credibility, integrity and competence must be the overriding parameters, we aver that the faith of the running mate should not be an issue.”
It could be recalled that CAN had urged all political parties not to field presidential flagbearers and running mates of same religion.
The Christian body had maintained that the current realities in Nigeria where Christians and Muslim are being targeted by terrorists, calls for wisdom in the selection of leaders that will represent Nigerians.
It had suggested that fielding presidential and vice-presidential flagbearers will further threaten the fragile peace and unity of Nigeria.