The Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, recently disclosed that he was still searching for a substantive running mate. Tinubu made this disclosure in Abuja on Sunday, June 26, at the book presentation, “Mr. Speaker”, and unveiling of the Legislative Mentorship Initiative to mark the 60 birthday of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.

It would be recalled that on Wednesday, June 8, Tinubu emerged as the presidential candidate of the ruling APC at the party’s presidential primaries/ national convention held at the Eagle Square, Abuja.

Although the former governor of Lagos State has traveled to some parts of the country to consult with his political allies and other stakeholders, he is yet to sort out the issue of his running mate. However, the name of Kabir Masari from Katsina State, has been submitted to INEC in ‘place holding’ capacity.

Region, Religion

The issue of picking a running mate continues to linger due to some factors. Tinubu, a Yoruba Muslim from South-West, is presently confronted with the dilemma of either going with a Muslim/Muslim ticket or picking a Christian from the North.

Various interest groups, including religious bodies and others, have expressed divergent opinions on the issue. While some are insisting on the political desirability of the option, others are of the view that a Muslim-Muslim ticket will not be a fair decision.

While Tinubu is believed to be interested in picking a Christian from the North-East, there are those within the ruling party who are of the view that there is no strong candidate from the region who can fly the party’s flag along with Tinubu.

Speaking at a rally in Ekiti before the governorship election was held, Tinubu said he will pick a Northern Christian as his running mate, adding that those behind the Muslim-Muslim ticket rumour are undemocratic elements who are threatened by his imminent victory in the coming presidential elections.

“The VP slot belongs to the North-Eastern region and particularly the Christians, but consultations are yet ongoing as to who will be decided,” Tinubu said, just as he assured that no group, institution or person can impose a running mate on him.

The APC has also declared that it will prioritise competence ahead of religion or any other consideration in selecting a substantive vice presidential candidate.

Speaking with newsmen last Sunday in Abuja, APC’s Deputy National Organising Secretary, Nze Chidi Duru, said the party would nominate a very competent and capable person to complement Tinubu’s strength and weakness. According to Duru, APC has not taken a decision that it must come from a particular religion or tribe.

“On Muslim-Muslim joint ticket, I think we must not bicker about denomination of who eventually emerges as our vice president. What is clear is that the party will nominate a very competent and capable person that will complement the strength and weakness of our candidate.

“As it is today, what we have is a Muslim-Muslim joint ticket. Religion is no longer an issue for the party. I have said that we are looking for a capable and competent nationalist to complement our candidate.

“It may be that we are going to reap the benefit of 1993 where people will no longer talk about religion and tribe but those that will do well for us and lift the country and provide the required leadership that Nigeria deserves.

“All I want to say is that he will come from the North-East, North- West or North Central. This is the stand of the party for now. We will not bathe in the realm of congestion of whether he is the rightful candidate. He is capable in his own right,” Duru said.

Wide Range Of Choices

But another APC chieftain, Osita Okechukwu, expressed the view that Tinubu has a wide range of areas in the North to look for a Christian running mate.

Okechukwu, who is the Director General Voice of Nigeria (VON), said there are Christians in Sokoto, Kebbi, Borno and many other states in the North to choose a running mate from.

According to the VON boss, “The last I heard from our presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is that he is still searching and luckily, he has a wide variety of areas to search from, from River Benue up to the last point in Jibia, Dutse, Lake Chad boundary. So, if you are the one searching in a wide vast area where we have over 100 people with about 44 million voters which might go up to 50 million, you have a wide range of areas to search. Luckily for us, a lot of people will not know that even in Kebbi, Sokoto, there are Christians. Even in Borno, there are Christians. He has a wide range of areas to look for Christians.”

Meanwhile, some names have been speculated in the media as possible vice presidential candidates and they include Governors Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna and former Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State, all of whom are all Muslims.

Also, governors elected on the platform of the ruling party are insisting on a sitting colleague to be picked as vice presidential candidate following the role they played in his emergence as the flagbearer.

There is a claim that the sitting governors want the APC presidential candidate to compensate them for the role they played before the convention where they killed the move by National Chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, to have a consensus presidential candidate in person of the President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan.

Reports also have it that the governors are also pushing for Tinubu’s running mate to come from the North-East, particularly from Borno State, and that if, on the other hand, it goes to the North-West, it should not be Katsina State.

They were said to have contended that since Katsina produced late President Umaru Yar’Adua and incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, the state shouldn’t therefore be considered.

Going For A Friend Or Foe?

It was also gathered that another group in the Progressives Governors camp is pushing for the North-West geo-political zone to produce the vice presidential candidate, while looking in the direction of Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State; Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano, and Governor Atiku Abubakar of Kebbi State.

The search is believed to have ignited high wired politics in the party. Curiously, the governor of Kaduna State, who is suspected to be a strong foe of Tinubu, is said to be making moves to clinch the vice presidential slot.

On Monday, a group under the aegis of Tinubu Support Organisation (TSO), at a press conference in Kaduna, endorsed the state governor as the vice-presidential candidate. TSO’s Director-General, Aminu Suleiman, said the group arrived at the choice of El-Rufai after meeting with critical stakeholders from the North-West zone and beyond.

Suleiman noted that the choice of running mate is a critical success factor for the victory of Tinubu in 2023, hence the organization, having assessed all options, wants the APC candidate for the vice president to come from the North-West, which is the largest voting bloc in the country.

El-Rufai, the group added, is a very experienced person who has done well in both politics and governance at the federal and state levels and is the best candidate that can complement Tinubu as Vice President.

“After due consultation with critical Stakeholders especially in the North-West, it is of the fact that El-Rufai is Asiwaju’s best choice for VP.

“The Tinubu Support Organisation is working tirelessly for the election of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the next President of Nigeria. TSO believes that the choice of running mate is a critical success factor for the victory of Asiwaju.

“We are glad that the APC has many outstanding individuals among its leaders. But having assessed all the options, it is the view of TSO that the APC’s candidate for VP should be chosen from the North-West, the single largest voting bloc in Nigeria.

“It is our view that the person that can best compliment Asiwaju as VP is Malam Nasir El-Rufai the Executive Governor of Kaduna State and we recommend that he should be chosen as the running mate.

“El-Rufai is a very experienced person. He has held office at the federal level and at the state level, and he has done well in every office. He has always stood for progressive policies. He is not afraid of difficult decisions. This is a man that is running a state government with appointees from all over Nigeria.

“His capacity is not in doubt. His personal ability is outstanding. He is firm. He is courageous. He is principled. We know that he resisted every pressure to be dragged into the presidential race. We appreciate him and his colleagues, the APC governors from the north, for sticking to the view that gentlemen should respect agreements.

“El-Rufai is a leader whose talents and energy should be brought back to the federal level. We appeal to all our leaders in the APC to support Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to choose El-Rufai as his running mate.”

But sources within the APC, especially those close to the presidential candidate, have said that Tinubu will never consider the Kaduna governor as his running mate.

According to one of these sources, “It is a known fact that El-Rufai is not a fan of Asiwaju and everyone knows that, including Asiwaju himself. Anyone thinking that Asiwaju will nominate El-Rufai as a running mate is making a big mistake.

“Put yourself in Asiwaju’s shoes, will you nominate someone who once referred to you as a godfather and said he knows how to end your reign in your state? Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu will never nominate a vice president that will be controversial for his administration. Everyone knows that El-Rufai is a controversial human being.”

It would be recalled that El-Rufai had in 2019, at an event in Lagos, said he knew how to end godfatherism in Lagos State.

At an event organised by the Bridge Club in Ikoyi, tagged, “An evening with His Excellency, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State”, El-Rufai said he was able to retire, in the 2019 general elections, some political godfathers that determined the affairs of Kaduna State.

While noting that many of the godfathers were merely either on paper or in the mind of people in politics, the Kaduna governor had said, “Godfatherism. This is Lagos. Let me tell you something, sir; you know Kaduna State used to be like that. There were three or four politicians in Kaduna that you could not become anything unless you had them on your side. Those were the godfathers of Kaduna politics and you had to carry them along and, you know, the three words, ‘carry them along’ mean paying them regularly. “But we chose a different path and the long and short of it now is that after this election in 2019, we have retired all of them; we had to,” he added.

On how to end godfatherism in Lagos, the governor pointed out that the blueprint was getting to the people at the grassroots.

“To dislodge him, one would have to first embark on a study to understand why five of the six million voters in Lagos State did not vote.

“Here in Lagos, you have over six million registered voters, only about a million voted (in 2019 general elections); five million did not vote. If I want to run for governor of Lagos, I will start now.

“I will commission a study to know why those five million registered voters did not vote; where do they go on election day? Then I will start visiting them for the next four years. I will try and get just two million of them to come and vote for me; I will defeat any godfather. The key is to go to the people.

“The card reader and the biometric register have given us the tools to connect directly with the people. I assure you if you do that for the next four years, connecting with the people; the thin godfather, you will retire him or her permanently.

“But it is hard work; it requires three to four years of hard work. So, if you want to run in 2023, you should start now,” he said, adding that it would require about N2 billion to defeat a godfather.

“With about N2 billion; if you start, you see these guys with black ties, they will give you the N2 billion. Many of the godfathers are either on paper or in the mind of people in politics. They are defeatable.”

Another source who spoke with our correspondent on the basis of anonymity, claimed that the party may not have a say in who eventually becomes the running mate.

APC Governors’ Wish

According to the source who is a close ally to Tinubu, “Tinubu is likely to choose who he prefers to run with him. As things stand, many of these guys may not put their money down to support Asiwaju during the campaign. So, why should they be fighting to nominate a running mate for him?

“From all indications, Asiwaju won’t depend on them for campaign funds, his campaign will be funded by his friends, home and abroad, and maybe a few members of the party. When the time comes, I am very sure that the party won’t dictate to him who will be his running mate.”

The dilemma at the moment, as gathered by Sunday Independent, is that while the governors prefer a sitting governor in person of Babagana Zulum of Borno State, Tinubu is said to have zeroed his search on former governor of Borno State, Senator Kashim Shettima, who currently represents Borno Central in the Senate.

A source claimed that Tinubu prefers Shettima because he has been in the forefront of his presidential struggle. It was also gathered that he wants to settle for Shettima because he is politically on the ground, a formidable force and well-accepted in the North-East in order to split the votes from the zone with former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, who hails from Adamawa State, also in the North-East.

From the permutation on the ground, political analysts and observers believe that if Tinubu settles for either Zulum or Shettima, it will be a Muslim-Muslim ticket and if this fails, the party may also look in the way of former speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, from Bauchi, North- East zone, who is a Christian or Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, North-Central, also a Christian.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Democracy Defence Watch (NDDW) has warned on the danger of presenting a Muslim/Muslim ticket, saying that such development would not only be a threat to national stability but could also retard peace and security in Nigeria.

In a seven-page letter to President Buhari, the civic group said if the APC goes ahead with the Muslim/Muslim ticket agenda, it would only portray Nigeria as an Islamic and sectarian nation, which will be ultimately resisted by the nation’s millions of practicing Christians, moderate and progressive Muslims and civic groups, ethno-cultural associations and enlightened members of the International community.

NDDW National Coordinator and National Secretary, Alhaji Ahmed Ibrahim Adamu, and Otunba Adeniji Adegoke respectively, sounded the caution in the letter titled ‘APC’s Muslim/ Muslim ticket in Nigeria’s 2023 Elections: A Threat to National Stability, Regional Peace and Security.’

The group said it is worried more, particularly with the international dimension it is taking with a recent letter by five United States senators to the US Senate, where they are calling for readmission of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), due to the worsening sectarian violence in the country.

“The US senators observed that ‘horrific acts of deadly violence have been committed against Nigerian Christians in recent weeks, including the massacre of church goers on Pentecost Sunday and the stoning of a Christian college student.

“Sadly, such violence has become all too familiar for Christians in Africa’s most populous country…Religious violence and intolerance directed toward Nigerian Christians has worsened in recent years. One report documented more than 4,650 cases of Nigerian Christians who were killed for their faith in 2021,” the body said.

They therefore called on President Buhari to direct the security forces to do the needful by advising the APC presidential candidate and the ruling party on the possible threats the action could pose to security in the country.

“It is pertinent to note the serious implications of the above with regards to security. This is especially when one rightly imagines that Christians will feel threatened with a Muslim/Muslim ticket, and may resort to pulpit preaching and mobilization of opinions across the Christendom.

“Civil society organisations and students would likely protest this destructive introduction into our polity in various manners which may constitute security concerns. However, it should be noted that the “original sin” is the adoption of a Muslim/Muslim ticket by the ruling APC, and not the reactions and responses that may follow it.

“We therefore implore you to use your good offices to weigh in on Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu to thread with caution and refrain from his unyielding desire to foist on the nation a MUSLIM-MUSLIM ticket which if it succeeds will make the above tragic and destructive humanitarian quagmire a distinct possibility,” the NDDW further cautioned.

Sounding similar warning, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) said an APC Muslim-Muslim ticket was tantamount to playing with fire.

In a statement by its national coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA said the emergence of a Muslim-Muslim ticket presidency would further heighten the aggression against Christians by bandits and terrorists claiming allegiance to Islam.

HURIWA condemned the alleged plan insisting it is unconstitutional and violates Section 14 (3) and (4) and Section 318 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which specifically states that the principle of federal character should be reflected in the composition of the government and that no group, religious or ethnic, should dominate the other.

Onwubiko said: “The nomination will endanger national unity and will divide Nigeria irretrievably. If Tinubu goes on with a Muslim running mate, the APC should just forget about Nigeria because religious war will break out and Nigeria’s case will be worse than Somalia’s.”(Sunday Independent)

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