Categories: Politics

Why APC Should Pick Christian Northerner As Vice Presidential Candidate – Member

A file photo of the APC flag.

 

A member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Aliyu Audu, has asked the ruling party to pick a Christian northerner as its vice presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections.

He made the appeal in a statement amid debate over who should emerge as the running mate of the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu.

Audu of the Northern Progressive Agenda described Tinubu as a self-selling politician whom any combination on his ticket would be a huge success.

He advised the APC to ensure it gives Nigerians the assurance that its choice of a vice presidential candidate would not aggravate the tension in the country along its fault lines.

Stressing that the ruling party has done better than the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by electing a southerner as its presidential flagbearer, he asked the APC to do more in ensuring religious inclusion in picking its vice presidential candidate.

Read the full statement below:

For the sake of internal discourse, I would like to lend my 2cents to this discussion. ABAT2023 is such a self-selling product that any combination on the ticket will be a huge success.

However, the hostility from certain quarters of the country calls for a deep reflection on the composition of our ticket. It will be great to show that our choice of running mate does not aggravate the tension in the country along our fault lines. We have done better than PDP in ensuring fairness in succession on regional balance, we can do even more in ensuring religious inclusion. If a Southern Muslim candidate can ever do it, it will have to be Asiwaju.

A Northern Christian running mate has a higher chance of gathering more votes from the North and across the country than a Northern Muslim running mate.

Politics and electioneering are both arts and sciences. North Central dominated by Christians played a vital role in the 2015 and 2019 presidential elections. As popular as PMB is in the North, the only times he succeeded were when he won the North Central zone, despite always dominating the Muslim-dominated North West and North East in his previous three attempts.

Between Atiku and Kwankwaso, the Northern Muslim votes are already well eaten into, if we are to conclude that religion is the basis for voting in the North (an assumption that I consider not so true). We will have to work to get our votes out considering that we are offering a number 2 seat to the Muslim north while others offer No 1 seat in the same contest.

There are a huge number of Asiwaju believers in the entire north who will work for the success of Asiwaju, regardless of the choice of a running mate because we are in the majority. There are a good number of Christian voters in the following northern states Kogi, Kwara, Plateau, Nasarawa, Benue, Taraba, Kaduna, Adamawa, Gombe, Borno, and the FCT, whose votes can be harvested to about 70% if we have a Northern Christian running mate on the ticket.

The South East and South South have been hostile to our party, it is our responsibility as a party to woo them and dominate the two regions to ensure a total end to the PDP. A northern Christian running mate will only add to our rising profile before their eyes as we have bettered their favourite PDP in picking a southern candidate over a northern candidate to succeed PMB.

I don’t think any politician is as popular right now as Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the love he enjoys isn’t a blind one; so, the fans and believers trust his leadership enough to work for his success at the polls irrespective of who becomes his running mate.

We will be investing a great deal in promoting peace and unity of this country as we won’t be giving the mischief-makers any reason to think we are insensitive to the fragility of our nation along religious lines.

Through this display of interest in our national unity, we will reap in abundance cooperation from the various well-meaning quarters of Nigeria – both at the polls and in our government that will arise.

We must not only pay lips service to our unity, but we must also make a deliberate, conscious, and conscientious investment in promoting peace and unity in Nigeria.

Aliyu Audu

Northern Progressive Agenda.

Akinola Ajibola

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