Tinubu meets with Pentecostal Bishops Forum of Northern Nigeria as he seeks to woo Christians

ALL Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has held a closed door meeting with the Pentecostal Bishops Forum of Northern Nigeria in Abuja in a further bid to diffuse the anger over his decision to go for a Muslim-Muslim ticket.

In June, Asiwaju Tinubu, the former Lagos State governor,  emerged as the APC presidential candidate after coasting home in a landslide victory following the party's convention in Abuja. Following his victory, however, he laboured to select a running mate after publicly declaring that he will pick a Christian from the northeast geo-political zone as his deputy.

Eventually, after weeks of prevarication, Asiwaju Tinubu ended up selecting a fellow Muslim in the form of former Borno State governor Senator Shettima as his running mate. His choice has polarised the country as the Christian faithful feel highly marginalised, especially in the northeast and north central geo-political zones.

In a bid to assuage the Christian anger over the same faith ticket, Asiwaju Tinubu has been trying all sorts of tricks. One occasion, when he was unveiling his running mate in Abuja, Asiwaju Tinubu dressed up dozens of his supporters in priestly robes to create the impression that clergymen were backing his candidacy.

In response to this, the Christian Association of Nigeria said that although Asiwaju Tinubu was free to hire mechanics and other artisans and sew clerical garments for them, the effort would only add to their many ropes but would not change the need for fairness and justice. Similarly. the former speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara and the former secretary to the  federal government, Babachir Lawal, made renewed threats to mobilise northern Christians to vote against Asiwaju Tinubu in February next year.

Hon Dogara had predicted that adopting a Muslim-Muslim ticket was a fruitless political effort that was doomed to end in spectacular failure. He made this statement while delivering his keynote address at a summit tagged Meet The Church, organised by the Nigeria National Christian Coalition.

Mr Lawal, on the other hand, vowed that the introduction of a same-faith ticket by the APC was a deliberate plan to further create divisions in the north. He declared that he was working with about 40 Christian leaders in the north to ensure that the contentious APC ticket failed.