President Muhammadu Buhari will not impose a running mate on Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), even though he is not in support of the party parading a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket in the 2023 general elections, Daily Independent has gathered.
The party is expected to name its running mate who is expected to be from the Northern part of the country between today and Thursday.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which has fixed June 17, as the deadline for the submission of candidates for the 2023 elections also said there will be no extension of the deadline.
Daily Independent had earlier reported that some members of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), one of the legacy parties that merged to form the APC, are insisting that it is their turn to produce the running mate.
Their argument was that when Buhari was elected as the APC’s presidential candidate in December 2014, the vice presidential slot was ceded to Tinubu’s Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).
To this end, they recommended Abubakar Malami, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice; Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna and the Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika, for the position.
However, a presidency source, who spoke with Daily Independent on Tuesday, said just like in 2014 when he rejected the choice of Tinubu, a Muslim, as his running mate, the president still believes that a Muslim-Muslim ticket may spell doom for the APC especially with the major opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), parading a Muslim-Christian ticket.
“One thing is clear, the president can interfere as the leader of the party but he won’t impose any running mate on Tinubu just like he did during the presidential primary where he was neutral.
It is Tinubu that is seeking the presidency and as such knows what is good for him and who can help him secure the needed votes to win the elections”, the source said.
The president on Wednesday held a closed door meeting with APC governors at the Presidential Villa in Abuja as deliberations continue on the choice of running mate to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the party’s presidential candidate.
Already, many prominent Nigerians, APC stakeholders and groups, especially the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) have publicly condemned and started mobilising their members against any party that parades a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
“The president still believes that just like in the 2015 presidential election, the APC fielding two Muslims as presidential and vice presidential candidates may not augur well for the party.
The opposition might latch on to that to get the support of the Christian community”, our source said.
Those in support of Muslim- Muslim ticket in APC had claimed that the party does not have strong, popular Northern Christian candidates that can get votes in the region for APC during the election.
