The Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress, according to Rev. Yunusa Nmadu Jr., General Secretary of the Evangelical Church Winning All, is a scheme for Bola Tinubu, the party’s nominee, to lose the 2023 presidential election.
According to the ECWA scribe, those who prepared the same religion presidential ticket merely planted a land mine for the former governor of Lagos State to trip over, saying they never had good intentions for him.
The united Tinubu-Shettima APC presidential ticket had caused controversy, with a number of groups opposing it.
Speaking to journalists in Kaduna on Tuesday, Nmadu—who is also the CEO of Christian Solidarity Worldwide—noted that the APC’s same-faith ticket has increased mistrust among Nigerians both in the state of Kaduna and at the federal level.
The justifications given for the presidential ticket consisting of exclusively members of one religion, he said, were not only puzzling but also offensive to people of other faiths.
According to him, the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the party is dead on arrival, adding that “I don’t know how anybody in their political calculation will ever think they will win an election in Nigeria without the Christians or win an election in Nigeria without the Muslims.”
He said, “Those who are the flying the Muslim-Muslim ticket either in Kaduna State or at the Federal level, to be categorical, have failed the examination already.
“This is not in the interest of the Muslims neither is it in the interest of the Christians. I will never support the same faith ticket even if it is Christian-Christian ticket where both faiths are almost equal.
“Of course, there are states where there is nothing you can do about it, especially in a predominantly Muslim state, you can’t go there and ask for a Muslim-Christian ticket. It’s understandable. And there are states that are predominantly Christians that you can’t go and ask for Christian-Muslim ticket.
“But I don’t know how anybody in their political calculation will ever think they will win an election in Nigeria without the Christians or win an election in Nigeria without the Muslims or win an election without people of no faith.
“This is our country. We are so divided that in the last seven years, the gap has increased so wide and it is expected that any government that is coming in now, should emphasise more on unity and how to bring the people together.
“In the same faith, ticket by the APC is dead before arrival. It is not in the interest of the unity of our country and I think those pushing the candidate to do this, do not even mean well for him.
“I believe again that this is my personal opinion, that because they want him to fail the election, they are asking him to do it so that he can fail and fail very well.”
On the reasons adduced for picking the same faith ticket, the ECWA’s scribe added, “Muslim-Muslim ticket is divisive; it does not encourage cohesion; it does not bring the country together and what we need now more than ever before is national unity and we need whoever that will bring us together, respecting everyone.
“Again, some of the reasons they gave for the same faith ticket is so mundane and so unintellectual. For instance, they said that we should be concerned about those who are coming to fix the country and not concern about religion.
“Are we saying those to fix the country are only found in one faith? They are also saying that its about competence. For me, I find that very insulting.
“What they are saying is that ‘we search as it is traditional from other faith and we could not find anybody that is competent’. That argument hold doesn’t hold water.
