Babachir Lawal, Dogara? Those Criticising Me Wanted To Be My Running Mate – Tinubu

The Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, has accused those criticising his choice of Senator Kashim Shettima as his running mate had also lobbied him for the vice-presidential position.

Naija News reports that Babachir Lawal, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and close ally of Tinubu, had described the decision to field a Muslim-Muslim ticket as “a disastrous error.’’

On his part, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, who was opposed to the idea, asked Christians in Nigeria not to waste their votes on the APC candidate in the 2023 election.

Speaking during an interactive session with the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Abuja, led by Archbishop Daniel Ukoh, Tinubu said his close friends indicated interest to become his running mate but he bluntly turned down.

The APC presidential candidate dismissed the claims in some quarters that he planned to Islamise Nigeria with his choice of Shettima as the Vice-Presidential candidate.

He said, “People have reacted harshly to my selection. They are because they are my friends, they lobbied me and wanted to be my running mate but I bluntly rejected them. The rumour that this is some plot to suppress the Christian community is untrue and unfortunate. I don’t have that kind of agenda. The bucks stop on my table, not on the vice- president’s table unless so delegated. He cannot even forgive convicted inmates if I don’t delegate the power to him. What is the vice- president?

‘’I can no more suppress the Christians of this nation than I can suppress the Christians in my own household, my very family. I dare not contest the presidential position in my house because I will lose, they are all Christians. If I did not Islamise my family, I cannot Islamise Nigeria. It is awful to hear such allegations. We cannot make progress if we continue to follow that path in the country. Religions will not help us. It won’t do any good to us.“

The former Lagos State governor appealed for the Christian leader’s support, stressing that Christian-Muslim ticket doesn’t work all the time.

Tinubu said, ‘’We are all here and witnessed Obasanjo and Atiku publicly fighting. We are asking for your votes; think twice, look at our records, and the way we have behaved in one office before the other before you take a decision. How best has a Christian and a Muslim President worked for Nigeria? Maybe one of these days we will have a Christian/Christian ticket. The person that I know will help me in the election is the person I have chosen.”