Senate Chief Whip, Orji Uzor Kalu has foreseen trouble ahead of the 2023 election for the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu should the party jettison fielding a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
He added that it would be almost difficult for the APC to win the election in 2023 if Tinubu does not play a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
This is how he urged Nigerians to stop the “rubbish” about consideration for religion as a factor in picking a running mate for Tinubu.
He spoke to Senate correspondents Wednesday at the National Assembly.
Kalu who underscored the need for the APC to win the presidential election using any permutation argued that it was not possible for a southern minority Muslim and a northern minority Christian to win a presidential election in Nigeria.
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“I know the Church I go to. There is nothing wrong with a Muslim-Muslim ticket, just as there is nothing wrong with a Christian-Christian ticket.
“Tinubu is a minority Muslim from the south, and if you pick a Christian from the north, it will be a minority Christian, and you cannot play two minorities; it is difficult.
“Do you want me to speak the truth? If I am Bola Ahmed Tinubu whose wife is a senior pastor at a Pentecostal Church, I will go for a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
“The most important thing is for the party to win. We should stop the issue of whether you put a Christian there or not.
“After all if we win, the wife is already a pastor. This is my own opinion, and you cannot deny me my opinion.
Kalu also told newsmen that a party could also play Christian-Christian ticket, depending on the scenario.
Kalu who spoke in his capacity as a concerned party man and not on the strength of APC said Tinubu is not a religious bigot.
He said “I sit with Tinubu’s wife in the Senate and the wife is a pastor and I have known Tinubu for long and he is a man who can do the work.
“Tinubu is not a man who preaches Islam or Christianity.
“He is a man who goes with everybody and can do the work, I know that most Christians will be hurt with what I am saying, but picking a Muslim or a Christian will not make him the best president.
“It is his conscience which is an open wound that only truth can heal that matters.”
