2023: Why I support A Muslim-Muslim Ticket – El Rufai; Don’t Dare It – Babachir Lawal

By Gideon Njoku

Two prominent Northerners, both of the All Progressives Congress, APC, have disagreed sharply on who the Party’s Presidential running mate should be.

The APC’s Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, from Southern Region is a Moslem. He is, therefore, as is usual in Nigeria, expected to choose a Christian of Northern extraction as his running mate. But the choice of who to pick, and of which religion  has become a subject of controversy.

While a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir David Lawal, a Christian and an indigene of Adamawa State, has warned both Tinubu and the APC not to make the mistake of  choosing a Muslim, Kaduna State Governor, a Muslim, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai says there is nothing wrong with a Muslim-Muslim ticket.

According to Lawal, such a ticket will be a monumental mistake, and could cost the APC the Presidential seat in 2023. He said no Northern Christian will vote for a Muslim-Muslim ticket.

But El-Rufai says there is nothing wrong with it. He is in full support, and posited that Nigerians should go for competence and capacity rather than go for religion.

El-Rufai whose Deputy Governor is, like him, a Muslim, said in an interview  with Channels Television that: “I don’t look at people from Muslim-Muslim or Christian-Christian angle. Most of my closest friends are Christians.”

To buttress his point, he revealed: “It was Pastor Tunde Bakare, a Pentecostal  Pastor, that took me to CPC, not President Buhari. I am very close to Bakare. I’m very close to many Christians.

“I don’t think the business of governance has anything  to do with religion. I think we should look for the best person for the job. A person that will let the job done and let him do that.

“I am the wrong person to ask because in my State, I picked a very competent and qualified woman as a running mate in the 2019 election. But just because she happens to be a Muslim, people were calling it Muslim-Muslim ticket, and they said we were going to lose, but we won overwhelmingly.

“This fixation of Nigerians on religion instead of conscience, capacity and capability is quite sad and pathetic. We should take religion out of governance. I don’t think we should be looking at Religion.

“Let’s develop this country. Nigeria is at  crossroads. We face very serious dangers in security, in economic meltdown, but all people are concerned so far is who will be President or Vice President.  Their concern is  religion. It’s so sad. It’s not our religions that will solve our problems.”

The leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, has also warned against a Muslim-Muslim ticket.

In 1993, a Muslim-Muslim ticket -the Social Democratic Party’s MKO Abiola and Babagana Kingibe – won the Presidential election. It was inexplicably cancelled by the Military Regime of General Ibrahim Babangida.

At the time, however, Nigeria was not this divided along religious and ethnic lines.

Now, not  a few people insist that such a ticket is not likely to be viable.