The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Saturday slammed his counterpart in the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, for allegedly stoking religious bias in a bid to win the 2023 presidential election.
Tinubu said the former vice president was a hypocrite for using the issue of a Muslim-Muslim ticket as a political strategy, adding that Atiku was exhibiting traits of desperation by stoking religious bias on national television to win the election.
Let me say openly that Atiku offered me the vice presidential ticket in 2007. Let me also say that my religion has not changed. When he offered the position to me, I was a Muslim and I believe he was aware of my religious faith at the time. Atiku’s calculations and deceit had nothing to do with religion or his sensitivity to it. His conduct has everything to do with what we discovered about his paucity of character and love of intrigue.
The APC national leader reiterated that he arrived at the choice of a former governor of Borno State, Senator Kashim Shettima, after weighing his options and due consultations with stakeholders of the party.
Also, the National Chairman of the South West Agenda for Asiwaju 2023, Senator Adedayo Adeyeye, accused the PDP of distracting Nigerians by campaigning against the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC. Adeyeye said the bigger issue was the fact that the opposition party jettisoned its North-South power rotation formula prescribed by its constitution.
The senator said, “The PDP is trying very hard to put the issue of Muslim-Muslim ticket on the front burner. But to me and for any patriotic Nigerian, it is a mere distraction. It is a desperate attempt by the PDP to clutch at any straw at all when they are just too aware that they are headed for the dungeon.
“So, those who are promoting this should know too well that they are just desperate to clutch any straw to keep them afloat because it is their futile attempt to prevent their dropping into the bottom of the sea.”