Mixed reactions have continued to trail the selection of Ibrahim Shettima as running mate by Ahmed Tinubu, the Presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
Tinubu announced his decision when he paid a Salah homage to President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday, in Katsina state, saying “he was yet to inform” Shettima, a former governor of Borno state, and one of the arrow heads of his campaign to secure the party’s presidential ticket, during the May shadow election by APC to select it’s presidential flagbearer.
His resolved to pick Shettima came after Ibrahim Masari who had earlier been selected by the APC candidate, stepped down. The former APC Welfare Secretary, was picked last month to beat the deadline set by the INEC for political parties to submit their presidential nominees.
The APC had said that Masari would fill in the gap while it sourced for an acceptable vice presidential election.
Tinubu, has however , shocked not a few Nigerians by picking Shettima a Muslim like him as his running mate ahead the 2023 presidential election.
Watchers of the nation’s politics insist that a Muslims/ Muslim ticket will further polarised Nigeria as a multi-religious nation.
But, Tinubu says the reason he picked Shettima is because he’s competent, and will help him win the presidential election next year.
According to him, Shettima was selected because the former Borno State governor is “competent, capable, reliable and able to be picked as a running mate”.
Reacting to the development, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, SAN, described Shetima as a worthy choice of a running mate to the APC candidate.
Keyamo who spoke on his Twitter handle, described Shettima as a “Quintessential banker and economist, suave gentleman and politician.”
Tthe former Borno governor is “inter-generationally mobile (he’s young, yet experienced), fiercely loyal, phenomenally complimentary to Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” the minister said, adding that, “Kashim Shettima is the perfect choice as VP.”
But the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN is not happy with Tinubu’s vice presidential choice.
Speaking in an interview with our correspondent on Sunday, CAN’s spokesperson, Adebayo Oladeji, said making such a decision in a polarised country was a wrong move.
He warned Nigerians of dire consequences if Tinubu is elected president next year.
He said, “We knew this was what he was going to do and we have warned against it. It is up to Nigerians to decide on what they want.
“You are all alive when we warned Buhari not to allow Muslims to dominate the security architecture of the country and he did it. I think we can see the way the criminals are operating with impunity.
“So, if Tinubu says he is opting for a Muslim-Muslim ticket in a polarised country like ours , if Nigerians endorse him and vote for him, whatever happens, Nigerians will face the consequences.
“If you have a government where a pastor is a vice president and pastors and worshipers are being killed you can imagine what will happen when we have a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
“It is left to Nigerians to make their choice, let them vote them in and we will all face the consequences together.
“We are raising our alarm. It is an irony that Buhari they regarded as an extremist when we raised an alarm to warn him against a Muslim-Muslim ticket, he heeded and opted for a christian as his vice presidential candidate, ” Oladeji said.
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