Christian Association of Nigeria warns Tinubu and Atiku not to dare pick Muslim running mates

CHRISTIAN Association of Nigeria (Can) officials have warned Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to both refrain from picking Muslim running mates in the run-up to the 2023 presidential elections.

Over the last fortnight, former vice president Alhaji Atiku and former Lagos State governor Asiwaju Tinubu have emerged as the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) respectively. Both candidates and Muslims and are currently desperately searching for running mates who will serve as their number twos.

Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec), has given all the parties until June 18 to submit the names of the candidates along with those of their running mates. Warning the two major parties to be aware if how they go about this, Can as asked both the APC and PDP to bury the thought of a Muslim/Muslim ticket for the 2023 presidential election. 

According to Can, such an idea is a threat to the fragile peace and unity of the country.  Joseph Daramola, the Can secretary, said a balance of practitioners of both religions should be considered in the choice of running mates of the presidential candidates.

Mr Daramola said: “We do not subscribe to Christian/Christian ticket or Muslim/Muslim tickets Politicians can talk politics but we stated our view long before now. Any party that tries same religion ticket will fail. This is not 1993.

"Even when we have joint Muslim/Christian ticket, the church still goes through hell. Only God knows the number of Christians that have been killed in the last seven years with no one apprehended or prosecuted. 

“Imagine how bad it will be if we have two Muslims in power? The extant Nigerian constitution promotes religious balance, so, if any political party wants to try Muslim/ Muslim ticket, it is to its own peril.

"Can is only forewarning but will make a categorical statement in the event our warning is not heeded. The running mate of the APC presidential flag-bearer, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, should be a Christian from the north, Atiku’s running mate should be a Christian from the south while Obi should choose his own among the Muslims from the north. 

“Anything contrary to the above means that the leadership of these political parties do not bother about the unity of this entity called Nigeria. Those who are planning Muslim/Muslim ticket should also find out what was the outcome of MKO Abiola and Kingibe ticket in 1993. If they try Muslim/Muslim ticket this time around, the outcome will be worse because our fault lines are very visible. 

“There is no party that has no great, good and patriotic Christians who can preside over the affairs of this nation, not to talk of being the vice president as some mischievous people are trying to say. If merit and competence are used as yardsticks, we have many qualified Christians in all the 774 local government areas of this country. 

“In the ongoing dispensation, Can leadership cried in vain to ask President Muhammadu Buhari to break the monopoly or dominance of the security architecture with people of same faith.  We are all seeing the outcome now. It is obvious that the Nigeria of today is different from that of 1993.

"Our politicians should stop flouting the constitution by respecting the north and south dichotomy and religious factor.  To those arguing that people do not care about the religions of their leaders once they are competent and credible, we dare the APC to pick its presidential running mate from the south and PDP pick its own from the North and see what follows."