Posted by Babachir Lawal, a former secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), has said that the All Progressives Congress’s (APC’s) decision to run a Muslim-Muslim ticket in the 2023 presidential election is an attempt to sever the north.
In an interview with GOSPELCABLE on Wednesday, Lawal made this statement.
Following the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) announcement of the final list of presidential and National Assembly candidates for the 2023 general election, he made his statement a short while later.
Both Muslims and candidates for the APC presidential nomination are Bola Tinubu of the south-west and Kashim Shettima of the north-east.
Lawal commented on the development, saying that northern Christian politicians continue to resist the APC’s same-faith ticket.
“The APC’s decision to run a Muslim-Muslim or same-faith ticket is a terrible plot to further polarize the north. We attempt to live as brothers and sisters as leaders of societies, but this diabolical proposal just appeared out of nowhere,” he remarked.
“This ticket must never be successful for all supporters of unity in this nation, particularly in the north where we are most impacted. And we’ll make sure that we do so convincingly that no one with common reason won’t ever consider it again, at least not in the immediate future for our political ascent in Nigeria.
“As a result, we have our sights set on eliminating it. Our populace is organized and prepared for the election.
Dogara and I are not the only ones responsible for this. In fact, we are the leaders of organizations made up of the north’s top 40 Christian politicians. We began working on this project years ago when we had a suspicion that what had happened would repeat itself if a Muslim from the south were to run for office in any of the political parties.
“Now, there are two problems with this. We are politicians first and foremost, and our main responsibility is to win elections and establish governments. Second, it disqualifies northern Christians from political office, which is something we considered while evaluating this ticket. We shouldn’t hand ourselves up to the new government and keep ourselves out of it.
Therefore, even if we intend for the APC’s same-faith ticket to lose, we also think that we should join forces with a major political party that stands a chance of winning.
“Our plan is that we won’t just throw away our ballots because we want to criticize the APC’s same-faith ticket. We would prefer to collaborate with a different organization that is more understanding of the Nigerian situation and aware of the country’s need for harmony, unity, and peace,” he said.