BY MAYOWA SAMUEL
Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and a chieftain of the ruling All Progressive Congress, Babachir Lawal, has declared that his party will not win the presidential election in 2023 because of the same faith ticket.
Disclosing this in an interview with the BBC, Babachir said he and others supported the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to win the primary election, but they later realised he had been hiding his decision to pick a Muslim running mate.
Babachir said he is no longer supporting Tinubu and APC will lose the presidential election.
He said, “I am not for Bola Tinubu now. I am not for a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
“It is Bola who did not want to go with us, he chose where he wants to go, and we told him that we will not vote for him if he did a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
“PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) discussed with us and they agreed to do what we want if we support them and we agreed to support them.”
PDP is fielding a Muslim-Christian ticket, with Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate while Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State is his running mate.
Babachir added that the Labour Party tried so much to convince him and other aggrieved members to work for the party.
Asked whether they tried to reach Tinubu to discuss the issue, he said, “No, he is the one to look for us now, I will not look for him. We have a place to go and a place to stay. But he didn’t look for us.
“If he sees that he will win the election, let see how he will win the election.”
He maintained that he is still in the APC but he and his people would not support Tinubu.
Regarding the fact that he might be accused of anti-party conduct, Babachir said he wasn’t bothered even if he would be insulted, adding that, “If Buhari leaves politics, I will also leave because I joined politics because of him.”
Babachir also lamented the ‘discrimination’ against Christians in the North which has been too much for them, “and you still went ahead to do Muslim-Muslim ticket; that is double blows on us.”
“You see the problems of the northerners, if you say you are a Christian, it is difficult for us to get a job.
“You see, of the 27 universities in the north, there are only two Christian VCs and of 27 polytechnics there are only two Christian Rectors, that’s federal, but not to talk of state-owned,” he further revealed.
