The former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, on Thursday warned the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the party against selecting a Muslim running mate in 2023.
Lawal, who made the call in a Channels Television programme, Politics Today, warned that a Muslim-Muslim ticket would not be generally acceptable to the citizens because of the current situation in the country.
He stressed that all the issues that previously led to the expansion of the country’s fault lines (ethnic, religious, and cultural) have become worse in recent times.
The ex-SSG stressed that it would be out of place for anyone to consider a Muslim-Muslim ticket considering the peculiarity of the nation’s political atmosphere which is divided along regional and religious lines.
Lawal said: “You can have the best ticket but if you don’t win the election, it’s a waste of time. So, we must bear in mind that the vice presidential candidate is going to contribute to winning that election.
“Extending that consideration to the Muslim-Muslim ticket, I live among the Christians, and I know that among the Christians, the question of 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 because of that 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.”
