The
Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has been ruled out
as a running mate to the presidential candidate of the All Progressives
Congress anytime the candidate emerges
A highly placed source in the party, who
spoke with our correspondent on condition of anonymity in Abuja on
Sunday, said that Fashola’s religion had ruled him out of the race.
He said since it was almost certain that
the party would field a Muslim as its presidential candidate, it would
therefore be out of place to field another Muslim as the running mate.
Apart from a former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), the party also has three other known presidential aspirants.
They are a former Vice President, Alhaji
Atiku Abubakar; Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwakwanso; and a
newspaper publisher, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah.
Out of them, only Nda-Isaiah is a Christian.
The source said that though Fashola
remained the best candidate for the position, he however regretted that
the issue of religion would deny the party and the country the chance of
fielding the governor.
He said, “You know that the South-West
is a base for the APC and it also contributed immensely to its
formation. We would have preferred Fashola because of his pedigree in
the state. Moreover, of all the APC governors from the zone, he is the
only one doing his second term.
“But this issue of religion is the
problem. Apart from this, other APC governors from the zone are also
Muslims. You may need to recall that the enemies of our party tried in
vain before to label the party a Muslim party.
“Even though they have failed, we may
also need to be guided by the words of advice from former President
Olusegun Obasanjo against any party fielding same religion ticket. This
is what is hampering us concerning Fashola, whose performance and
competence cannot be queried.”
The source said that even though the
national leadership of the party was aware that the people of the
“South-West are not religious but we are dealing with a larger society
now. So, we must be careful.”
Comments
Post a Comment
Hello