BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
As the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) struggles to convince Nigerians and especially those of the Christian faith that it meant no harm over its Muslim-Muslim Presidential Ticket for the 2023 general election, a chieftain of the party has argued that the blame should go to the southern members of the party who are Christians. He insisted that the north did not do anything wrong by nominating their best candidate.
The party chieftain, who is a Muslim and earnestly asked not to be named because of the volatile nature of the subject, told The Point that the north had long settled for a Muslim as running mate for the Party’s standard bearer, who was expected to emerge from the South believing that the South would produce a Christian candidate after President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to the party stalwart, the impression that the members of the party from the North had was that with the outgoing President being a Muslim and also from the North, and after zoning the chairmanship position of the party to the North and a Muslim had emerged in the person of Senator Abdullahi Adamu, the Presidential candidate would automatically come from the South and had expected the Christian members from the South to produce the candidate.
“The North has done nothing wrong to insist that the running mate must be a Muslim. This is because we have the right to do so and everyone has to respect the right of each other. It was not done to spite or disregard our Christian brothers and sisters from the north rather, it was a decision already taken before the emergence of the Party’s flag bearer, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who incidentally is also a Muslim.
“Our calculations were that the South with the Christian majority as party members was going to seize the opportunity and give us a Christian candidate and of course, we already calculated that the candidate would be from either of the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, Rotimi Amechi or Emeka Nwajiuba, and of course there are others. Based on these calculations, we in several caucus meetings settled for three candidates to match them.
“Unfortunately, our brothers from the South didn’t play their politics well beyond personal and parochial interests; they could not give us any of the Christian aspirants as the candidate from the primary and we remained resolute on the choices we had already made even before the primary. So tell me where we went wrong or how we did not regard our Christian brothers from the North? They had the ample opportunity to do that but failed. They allowed themselves to be influenced.”
The APC stalwart further explained that though Tinubu was the earliest to indicate interest for the ticket, they did not believe the South would give him the ticket knowing full well that it’s the ample opportunity for the party to produce a Christian presidential candidate since the National Chairman is already a northern Muslim.
“Let me tell you, we had agreed to a Christian-Muslim ticket thinking that our Presidential candidate coming from the south will be either Osibanjo, Amechi or Nwajiuba. I’m telling you the whole truth. Our calculations were that if VP Osinbajo emerged, we will give him Prof Zulum, the Governor of Borno state; if Amechi emerged he will run with the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El’rufai and if it was Nwajiuba who emerged we will match him with one of the two. Senator Kashim Shettima was not in the picture at all.
“I know it was not only the southern delegates that voted but you will be shocked to know that majority of his votes came from the south. Anyway, that’s in the past now. To be fair to him, I mean Shettima, he did not lobby or push for this position. What happened was that Tinubu for whatever reasons, decided to fly the Party’s flag with him. Nobody imposed him on Tinubu. You can remember that before the choice of the running mate was made, Prof Zulum told the whole world he was not interested that he still wants to serve his people. Am I correct?
“That would confirm to you that he has earlier been anointed by our respected authorities in the north. I can’t speak for him, but I believe if Osinbajo had emerged, Zulum may have run with him. The presidential candidate had the sole right to choose from the party faithful, who should be his running mate and he has chosen Shettima.
We should respect his choice and if there is any blame, it should go to the members of the party from the South who allowed the alteration of the Party’s order and arrangement to balance the positions.”
When he was reminded that the APC’s body movement after the emergence of opposition Peoples Democratic Party’s Atiku Abubakar as its possible Presidential candidate changed to indicate that the only candidate who could match him was Tinubu who is also a Muslim, our source claimed that the campaign for such also emanated from the South.
He recalled that at a certain stage, those who wanted the primary to go the way it finally went began to fly some unnecessary kites and lured Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, into the race. “Do you think the pronouncement of Lawan as a consensus candidate was for no reason? It was a ploy to make believe that since Atiku was more likely to win the PDP primary, APC needs a northerner or a Muslim as its candidate to retain power. But all these were cooked by people from the South not from us in the North because we already knew what we wanted.
“If the southern members believed it will take Tinubu or a Muslim for our party to remain in power, why should we oppose it? This is politics. It’s a game as well as a competition. Nobody goes into a competition with the mind to lose and if you must not lose, you must field your best. Am I saying the Tinubu/Shettima ticket is the best for the party? Yes, because the emergence of Tinubu from the primary was overwhelming. I don’t want to be dragged into how he emerged or what led to his emergence. It’s all about politics.
“Since we have settled for the two of them, I want to beg our Christian brothers from the North not to see it as our fault but the fault of the Christians from the South who changed the due order. I don’t see the ticket as portraying the Northern Christian members of the party as incompetent. It’s only a resolution to stand by the decision already taken concerning the North.
“Again, let me tell you this, the Northern Christian members were at the forefront pushing for Tinubu to emerge probably because they were eyeing the VP slot. I think the best thing they could have done was to support and push for the emergence of a Southern Christian flag bearer but for selfishness, they sold the mandate. Again like I said, it’s all politics, a game, a competition. You come with your own secret punch, another comes with his own.”
“Unfortunately, our brothers from the South didn’t play their politics well beyond personal and parochial interests; they could not give us any of the Christian aspirants as the candidate from the primary and we remained resolute on the choices we had already made even before the primary…They allowed themselves to be influenced”
The APC bigwig argued that President Muhammadu Buhari did all he needed to do as a democratic President. He noted that the President’s pronouncement that party positions stand rotated beginning from the national offices through to the party’s candidates was all that was needed for the zoning to be actualised and he actualised it.
“I didn’t expect President Muhammadu Buhari to go beyond setting the ball for the zoning rolling. He made that clear and it has produced a Northern National Chairman and a Southern Presidential candidate. If anybody was expecting him to hand pick a presidential candidate, that person probably does not know him. Even among his close allies, they knew that he would not interfere in the matter.
“I’m saying this because some party faithful are claiming that the President promised some people the ticket but disappointed them at last. And my question is, how can somebody who wants to be President of Nigeria depend on President Buhari to pick the ticket? It just showed that such a person was not prepared for the position.
“Now that Tinubu has unveiled Shettima as his running mate, as APC party man, I feel the right thing to do is for us to work towards victory at the 2023 polls and I can assure you, it is tenable,” he said.
In what appears to be a confirmation of the party chieftain’s claim, Asiwaju’s running mate, Shettima during a visit to the Presidential Aso Rock Villa after his unveiling, to hold a meeting with the President said his state’s governor, Prof Zulum should be appreciated for spurning recurring mention of him and the pressure from his governor colleagues who wanted him to bid for the position.
Meanwhile, most Christian leaders across the country have remained resilient to the cause of absolutely rejecting the Muslim-Muslim Ticket. It would be recalled that about 30 persons branded bishops were at the unveiling ceremony of Senator Shettima as the APC running mate. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) wasted no time in disowning them and describing them as “fake and a mockery of the exalted seat in God’s vineyard.”
The umbrella body stated then in a release issued by its Vice President (19 states of the North and Abuja) and its Chairman in Kaduna State, Rev Joseph John Hayab that “The people we saw at the unveiling of Shettima paraded as Bishops are people who did not have enough time to learn how to wear Bishop garments. Take a closer look at their photo you will see another Nollywood movie.”
The body wondered why the desperation in the APC if they are not worried that they have made a deadly mistake in their choice.
Last week, a video of the party’s national chairman went viral when he attended a church programme and he could be heard motivating the congregation with shouts of “Praise the Lord !” to which they yelled “Hallelujay !!”
Also speaking in a recent church sermon, the Senior Pastor of Dunamis International Gospel Centre, Dr Paul Enenche, said it’s unbelievable that there is no competent Christian in the APC to be nominated as Presidential running mate.
He further said the Christians are not in the minority and warned that the manner APC was going about the 2023 presidential election was unacceptable.
But the party has since stepped up its campaign to reassure the Nigerian Christian community of a fair deal in all things at all times.
