24th July, 2022
By Adeyemi Adeleye
The All Progressives Congress (APC), South Africa chapter has said Muslim-Muslim ticket of the party’s Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and his Running Mate, Sen. Kashim Shettima, is a non-issue.
This, according to them, is because the candidate and his running mate will deliver dividends of democracy to Nigerians.
In a statement by Mr Bola Babarinde, the Chairman of the chapter, on Sunday, he said Tinubu and Shettima can salvage the country from its current woes.
Babarinde noted that the nation needs competent leaders that can make lives better for the people.
“A political party chooses a presidential joint ticket for its viability, and solely to win elections as its immediate priority, and it is after winning and occupying an office that any electoral promises can be fulfilled and delivered.
“The pedigree and achievements of Tinubu and Shettima in administration, governance and politics are solid and incontrovertible.
“They both possess the political capital and administrative wherewithal to lead the most populous black nation to socioeconomic development.
“The focus and beam light towards the election by the public and especially electorate should be on performance capacity and not religion or other primordial sentiments that have held us back as a nation from collectively rising above tribal and religious divides.”
According to him, it will be a marginalisation of Muslims and Christians who believe they are the only organised religion in Nigeria and by so doing exclude adherents of native and traditional religions from aspiring to lead the country.
He said the adherent of traditional religion also has the right to aspire and demand representation in governance.
“If everyone is insisting it will become convoluted; if Muslim/Muslim ticket is not good for Nigeria, then any other combinations will always be contested as having excluded other faiths.
“Even a joint ticket of both Muslim and Christian candidates can even be contested by adherents of the native religions for exclusivity and devoid of inclusion and equal representation.
“Now that the flag bearer of the APC, Asiwaju Tinubu and the party have concluded their decision on those who will occupy Aso Rock in 2023, let us respect and support them.
“We should pray for their success at the coming polls and working together eventually for the smooth sail of the incoming administration after the current dispensation,” he said.
NAN