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By Vincent Kalu
Spokesperson of the Tinubu Campaign Organisation, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, has assured the Christian community that there was nothing to fear over the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Tinubu, a Muslim, had also announced Kashim Shettima, former governor of Borno State, and also of the same faith, as his running mate. His choice has generated much controversy.
Speaking with Saturday Sun on the issue, Onanuga, said: “At the party level, we have been telling the Christian community that there is nothing to fear. We don’t see the candidates as Muslims, we see them as two competent candidates; either of them can be Nigeria’s president. It’s just an accident that both of them are Muslims because of their faith. I was born a Muslim, but am I really a Muslim? People would see me and say that I am a Muslim, but am I really one?
“What we are offering to Nigerians are two competent candidates; either of them can run this country effectively and give what Nigerians will call dividends of democracy. Look at their CVs. Nigerians should eschew all this tendency of being sentimental. Looking at candidates because they are Muslims is ridiculous. The issue is what can they offer? Look at their pedigrees, where are they coming from. The man from Borno , despite Boko Haram, look at what he did in his state. And the man from Lagos, I have been in Lagos for more than 50 years, and I knew the way Lagos was when he came in 1999 and I knew what he did to turn things around.
“Nigerians should stop these ideas of chasing shadows and look at the substance; the candidates and what they can do; what they can offer. That is what I will enjoin my fellows Nigerians to do. In 19993, we had what you people will call, Muslim-Muslim ticket, and at time when we thought that we were marching to nationhood, some military juntas thought otherwise. The Abiola-Kingibe ticket would have set a good precedence to our country where religion would have been banished. They won the election and if they had been allowed to run the country, we would have been better. After the annulment of the election, who did the military choose, a Christian? Did the Muslims complain?
“Those people who are complaining are the same people, who said if they could not install a Christian president, then they must get a Christian vice president; we all knew the role they played in trying to install a Christian president and the person lost. Why can’t they move on? What we are offering to Nigeria is a very good alternative; candidates that you would not even know their religion because they are not going there as Muslims, they are going there as Nigerians to offer service to Nigerians.
