Follow Us on Google
From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Oba Maduabuchi, SAN, has explained that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was compelled by the existing political circumstances of the country in picking a fellow Muslim as his running mate.
Tinubu on Sunday in Daura, Katsina State, had announced Kashim Shettima, 55, a former governor of Borno State and serving Senator representing Borno Central District, as his running mate.
Tinubu is a Muslim from the South West while Shettima is also a Muslim but from the North.
The choice of Shettima is already courting controversy in the nation’s political discourse with groups and individuals saying the Muslim-Muslim ticket is capable of causing disunity among religious groups in the country.
However speaking on Tuesday with journalists on the subject matter, Oba Maduabuchi explained that Tinubu was forced by political exigencies in making that choice.
The senior lawyer while appealing with Nigerians to understand the nation’s political dynamics and political arithmetic, stated that the choice of a Muslim vice presidential candidate is not a matter of religion, but a matter of exigency.
“I think he was forced by circumstances beyond him to pick a Muslim vice presidential candidate.
That is because, in political decisions, it is interest that reigns supreme. What is your interest? What is your objective and not what your religion or sentiments are. The important thing is what is your interest and objectives in the political venture.
He submitted that politics and political successes in an election are controlled by votes and not political and religious sentiments.
” Everything every candidate in an election is seeking are votes. If he comes to your Church or Mosque, he is coming there to campaign for votes.
“So, if Tinubu being a Southern Muslim decides to pick a Christian from the North and his running mate, he will loose the election because the North is predominantly Muslim.
” If you exclude the Northern Muslim in the electoral equation, how many votes do you think he will get from the North?
“So, it is the circumstances of Nigerian polity that make it compelling that he must pick a Northern presidential candidate.
“Can you imagine a Christian presidential candidate from the North picking a Muslim from the South as his running mate.
” If he picks a Christian presidential candidate from the North, he must pick a Christian from the South because he cannot exclude the entire South- South; South-East and South-West.
The senior lawyer noted that the Christian population in the above three regions is about 99 to 85 percent.
“So, you cannot because of 15 or 20 percent population, you will pick a Muslim from there, you will loose because majority of the people being sentimentally religiously biased, will obviously vote according to their own religion.
He submitted that people who are criticizing Tinubu for picking a fellow Muslim as his running mate are indirectly campaigning for him because of what he called sympathy of numbers.
” Once you begin to criticize Tinubu that he is running a Muslim -Muslim ticket, you are making the Muslims in the North to bond together and it will now become a war between the Christians and Muslims. And if 60 percent of the Muslims in the North vote for Tinubu, he has won the election.
“We have only three Christians States in the North, Benue, Plateau and Taraba. There is no other state in the North that has a Christian governor. So do you now need to waste your vice presidential slot on minority votes shutting out the majority?
Meantime, Oba Maduabuchi has hailed the choice of Datti Baba-Ahmed as a perfect choice that will complement him.
He added that Datti, the founder and pro-chancellor of Baze university Abuja is a highly principled personality and well respected technocrat and an independent minded person that can fit in the vision and objectives of an Obi presidency.
