Babachir Lawal, immediate past Secretary to the Government of the Federation, has warned the All Progressives Congress (APC) against fielding a Muslim-Muslim ticket ahead of the 2023 presidential election.
He spoke against the backdrop of the party picking a Muslim as running mate to its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who is a devout Muslim.
He made this known while speaking on a programme on Channels Television on Thursday.
Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State and National Leader of the APC, had emerged as the flagbearer of the ruling party on Wednesday.
Tinubu emergence as the APC presidential flagbearer has raised concerns that the party might be forced to pick a Muslim running mate from the North where Christians are the minority.
When asked if it was time for northern Christians allegedly marginalised to be placated with the nomination of one of them as Tinubu’s running mate, Lawal said, “I will answer this question in a roundabout way. A political party is in the business of winning elections and to win elections you need to get the votes to beat your opponents. The way I see it is that in choosing your vice-president, that must be paramount in your mind. You can have the best ticket but if you don’t win elections, it is a waste of time.
“So, whatever candidate we are going to choose, we will bear in mind that that vice-president will contribute to winning that election. How does he (or she) continue? It is either he (or she) is popular and can bring in the votes or he (or she) can bring the money that will help our logistics in getting out the votes, so we can win the elections.
“But then, there is also the requirement that you want to run a united country; you want to run a country where you don’t he friction in the society – peaceful, settled and everybody goes about their business.
“To that extent, you must factor in Nigeria’s peculiarities in politics. That is why, for example, in recognition of these peculiarities, the northern governors and the majority of us in the North felt that the presidency ought to shift to the South,” he said