The Christian population of the opposition All Progressives Congress are reportedly angry over an “open secret” that the party is planning to produce a Muslim/Muslim ticket comprising a former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, and a former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; ahead of the 2015 presidential election. This rumour has resulted in many threatening to quit the party.
A Muslim/Christian ticket is being clamoured for by these members and anything to the contrary will most likely tear the leading opposition party apart and dent their hope of unsitting the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the forth-coming elections.
Even a denial of this rumour by Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC’s Interim National Publicity Secretary has not been enough to calm the fear and disappointment among Christian members of the party.
A source told to The Punch that Christians in the party are unhappy with the party’s leadership whom he noted “have been nursing the plan for long and they are close to hatching it. Any Buhari/Tinubu or Muslim/Muslim ticket may mark the end of the party. It will be an insult to us the Christians and we will not hesitate to leave their party for them,” he said.
“They stand the risk of splitting this party if they are not careful. This is a very sad development. The Peoples Democratic Party will take advantage of it. Some people that joined us from the PDP are already threatening to go back because of this Muslim/Muslim ticket controversy,” another source noted.
Meanwhile, a prominent member of the APC and former Minister of Aviation, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, has also reacted to the development. On Monday, he advised the party’s leadership against making a mistake by fielding only Muslims on the ticket.
“I have said it privately in countless political meetings and I will say it publicly today. Please mark it, the biggest mistake that my party, the APC, can make is to field a Muslim/Muslim ticket in the 2015 Presidential election. If we do that, we will not only offend the Christian community but we will also lose the election woefully,” the former Minister warned.
Reacting to this via social media, the Assistant National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, said “APC will present to Nigerians the best persons with the integrity, capacity and competence to create jobs, fight corruption and rebuild our nation without discrimination.
“How these persons worship the Almighty God is private to them and does not matter to discerning Nigerians, particularly young people that suffer most from bad governance, unemployment and the Jonathanian culture of impunity.”
However, Fani-Kayode in an interview with The Punch on Friday, insisted that the move will have a negative effect on the opposition party. According to the former minister, “presenting a Muslim/Muslim ticket for the 2015 presidential election no matter how cleverly rationalised, defended or justified in the pursuit of an ideal or in the name of political correctness, will be a terrible insult to the 80 million Christians that are part and parcel of this country and it will result in their voting, en masse, for another party.”
The ex-minister warned that Christians should not be taken for granted or sacrificed “on the altar of political expediency.”
“Any party that seeks to do that ceases to be a political party and can be better described as a religious cult and no Christian worth his salt can or will ever be a member of such a cult. I will not be a party to such and I will leave if they are not comfortable with the truth,” he said.
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