From Desmond Mgboh, Kano
National Vice Chairman, (North West) of the All Progressives Congress(APC), Salihu Mohammed Lukeman has explained that the choice of a running mate for his party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, was informed by the desire to win elections as well as the need to get a team that would deliver to Nigerians upon their election.
He was speaking to the media soon after presiding over the party’s stakeholders meeting in Kano State on Wednesday.
Reacting to the outcry of some Nigerians over the adoption of a Muslim- Muslim ticket for his party in 2023 general elections, Lukeman pleaded that the religions backgrounds of the candidates was never a factor of consideration in the cause of the decision making process even as he described religion as a personal experience between an individual and his Creator.
“As a party what was upper most in our mind are two things: One is the ability to win the elections and secondly getting a team that can deliver when eventually they are elected. And I think that is the guiding principles” he stated.
While blaming the media for over blowing the Muslim -Muslim controversy, he assured that his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) was managing the situation well enough, including expressing optimism that the current outcry by some Nigerians would die down before the general elections.
On Tinubu choosing his running mate from the North -East instead of the North West, he responded that , “You don’t cry over split milk if it is that at all….. because a decision has been made.We are loyal party men and we are going to work for the success of the party. Politics is about contest and even if you have interest, once a choice has been made, you have to support whoever has emerged”
He acknowledged that the party has several court cases instituted by its aggrieved members in Kano State and across Nigeria, but assured that efforts were being made to resolve some of these disputes using the internal reconciliation mechanism of the party
He also assured that the leadership of the party was reaching out to these aggrieved party members, saying that, “Politics, like I said, is about contest, it is about disagreements and about managing these disagreements. Those who are impatient and have left, we have very little to do about it. But overall, those who understand that politics is beyond what you want, but about what is to be done to the people, if they decide to come back, they will always be welcomed”.