Former secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, has cautioned the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to desist from having a Muslim-Muslim ticket in the forthcoming 2023 presidential election.
The APC Chieftain while reacting to reports that APC might present a Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2023, said doing so will prove costly for the ruling party. He said a Muslim-Muslim ticket is dead on arrival.
According to him, Nigeria has been witnessing lots of religious complexities which will make it difficult for APC to sell a Muslim-Muslim ticket no matter the individuals involved.
Lawal said this during an interview with Channels TV, saying:“You can have the best ticket but if you don’t win the election, it’s a waste of time.”
“So, we must bear in mind that the vice (presidential candidate) is going to contribute to winning that election.”
“Extending that consideration to the Muslim-Muslim ticket, I live among the Christians, and I know that among the Christians, the question of Muslim-Muslim ticket is a no-go area; it is dead on arrival.
“Buhari himself, even at that time, had to drop this present presidential candidate because of that tension of a Muslim-Muslim ticket, and we have not seen anything in the country that has changed significantly to allow that to happen. On the contrary, it has worsened,” he added.
“The religious divide has increased, the tribal division has increased, the regional division has increased,” said the former SGF. “So, it will be a good thing if APC will settle for a Muslim-Christian ticket because we know the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), that is what they will do.”
With the emergence of Tinubu, a Southern Muslim, as the APC presidential candidate, there have been debates over who would be his running mate.
Tinubu is tipped to choose his running mate from the North, in order to ensure both the South and the North are represented on the party’s presidential ticket in 2023.
However, this has led to further speculation that a Muslim northerner might be chosen as the Vice-Presidential candidate, a possibility many had rejected.
