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- Says it is a direct insult on Christians community in Nigeria
From John Adams Minna
Barely 24 hours after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced Vice president Kasim Shettima as his running mate for the 2927 election, a Chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Niger state Hon Jonathan Vatsa has reacted to the development, saying that another Muslim-Muslim ticket will not have a place in 2027.
Vatsa categorically stated that the repeat of the 2023 Muslim-Muslim ticket by President Tinubu and the party is a direct insult on Christians community in the country, stressing that “I think this is a grevious mistake by the APC to have allowed this, it is highly insensitive”.
The former commissioner for Information Culture and Tourism in the state in a statement in Minna on Saturday pointed out that whoever advised the President and the APC to repeat the same Muslim-Muslim ticket for the forthcoming elections did not mean well for the President and the APC, adding that “the situation in 2023 is different from what is on ground right now”.
According to him, the President and the ruling party have shot themselves on the leg, saying that “with the current situation in the country, and the insinuations of Christians genocide all over the world about Nigeria, nobody expect the President to repeat this arrangement.
“Nobody can convince the Christians community in the country to vote for APC in 2027 where other political parties have Christians as their Presidential and Vice presidential candidates, it will be a difficult sell.
“What this means is that the President and the APC have made the campaign very difficult for the Christian members of the party ahead of the elections. What do you expect us to tell the Christians community, to vote for another Muslim-Muslim ticket”, he queried.
Vatsa who only last week appealed to the Niger state governor, Umar Mohammed Bago to consider a Christian as his running mate in 2027, maintained that the situation with Christians in the country can be likened to the biblical saying of a stone the builder rejected and the building cannot stand without the stone, the builder surely needs the stone”.
Describing another Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2027 as unacceptable, Vatsa said President Tinubu has thrown a great challenge to the Christians in the country with this choice he has made, stressing that “except the President has a different plan towards winning the election apart from the normal balloting, this choice will have a grevious consequences”.
He argued that the Christians community in the country are already feeling unsecured and will therefore be comfortable with a Christian Vice president in 2027, insisting that “as things stand now, they will be more comfortable where they are protected”, he submitted.
According to him, the international community are interested in the political development in the country and what will happen in 2027, especially the faith of the Christians in the country, adding further “something needs to be done about this choice.
“I have nothing against the Vice president nor the Muslims community but I am speaking for equity, justice and fairness in the political arrangement in the country”, he concluded.
