A former Secretary to the Government of the Federation,
Babachir Lawal, has warned the All Progressives Congress against picking a
Muslim as running mate to its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who
is also a Muslim.
Lawal pointed out that Nigerians are still conscious of
ethnoreligious factors in politics. According to him, Tinubu would have been
running mate to the President, Muhammadu Buhari, when the
latter became the candidate of the APC in 2014 but for the discouragement of a
Muslim-Muslim ticket.
He issued the warning while speaking on a programme on
Channels Television on Thursday.
Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State and National Leader
of the APC, had emerged as the flagbearer of the ruling party on Wednesday.
There are concerns that Tinubu, a Muslim, might be forced to
pick a Muslim running mate from the North where Christians are the minority.
When asked if it was time for northern Christians allegedly
marginalised to be placated with the nomination of one of them as Tinubu’s
running mate, Lawal said, “I will answer this question in a roundabout way. A
political party is in the business of winning elections and to win elections
you need to get the votes to beat your opponents. The way I see it is that in choosing
your vice-president, that must be paramount in your mind. You can have the best
ticket but if you don’t win elections, it is a waste of time.
“So, whatever candidate we are going to choose, we will bear
in mind that that vice-president will contribute to winning that election. How
does he (or she) continue? It is either he (or she) is popular and can bring in
the votes or he (or she) can bring the money that will help our logistics in
getting out the votes, so we can win the elections.
“But then, there is also the requirement that you want to
run a united country; you want to run a country where you don’t he friction in
the society – peaceful, settled and everybody goes about their business.
“To that extent, you
must factor in Nigeria’s peculiarities in politics. That is why, for example,
in recognition of these peculiarities, the northern governors and the majority
of us in the North felt that the presidency ought to shift to the South.
“It is not a requirement in the Constitution that it has to
shift. There is no zoning. But it is so we can have a country that is united;
that everybody can go about their business in a peaceful environment.
“It could have been possible for a northern (presidential)
candidate to emerge. But then, you would know that running the country in that
manner would have the southern part of Nigeria (to be) hostile to that
government. So, we allowed it to shift.
“Now, extending that consideration to the Muslim-Muslim
ticket, I have lived among the Christians and I know that among the Christians,
the question of a 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 (Tinubu) because of the 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. The religious divide has increased. Tribal divisions have increased. Regional divisions have increased. So, it would be a good thing if APC would settle for a Muslim-Christian ticket because we know (that the) PDP, that is what they would do.”
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