Muslim-Muslim Ticket: Anger As Tinubu Unveils Shettima As Running Mate

Many Nigerians have continued to express anger over the decision of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to unveil Senator Kashim Shettima as his running mate for the 2023 election.

Naija News reports that protesters had on Wednesday stormed the APC secretariat in Abuja to register their grievances over the decision of the party to go ahead with a Muslim-Muslim ticket at about the same time the former Borno state governor was being presented to party leaders at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja.

Speaking at the event to defend his choice of Shettima, Tinubu had said the former Borno State governor’s career in politics and beyond shows that he is eminently qualified not only to deliver that all-important electoral victory but also to step into the shoes of the Vice-President.

However, top members of the ruling party, including Governors, aspirants, and delegates of South East extraction, were conspicuously missing at the event.

The protesters under the aegis of APC Hausa-Fulani Youth Forum, who were at the party’s secretariat, stated that the protest would continue until the ruling party leadership to the right thing.

In a letter addressed to the National Chairman of the APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, and made available to The PUNCH, Abdullahi Mohammadu called on the party to replace Shettima immediately.

The petition read in part, ‘’As concerned stakeholders of the APC and those who constitute the voting strength of our party, we find it worrisome that such a decision could be taken without recourse to its implication on the electoral chances of the party and the attendant uproar such a decision could bring about in the country. Picking another Muslim from the north-eastern part of the country as  running mate is politically and morally indefensible.’’

Speaking on the Muslim-Muslim ticket, the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU) said the APC has already lost 2.2m votes.

A spokesman for SOKAPU, Luka Binniyat, said the 2023 presidential contest would be between the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar and Labour Party, Peter Obi.

The National President of the Middle Belt Forum, Dr. Bitrus Pogu, said the decision to go with a Muslim-Muslim ticket would not guarantee the APC victory.

He urged the APC presidential candidate to wait and see the results of the 2023 elections.