Given Nigeria’s numerous ethnoreligious complexities, Datti Baba-Ahmed, the Labour Party’s vice-presidential candidate, has stated that a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket will not work in the country.
In light of the two Muslims that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has presented for this Saturday’s competitive presidential election, Baba-Ahmed discussed his position regarding the viability of a same-faith ticket.
During a live appearance on Channels Television’s The 2023 Verdict on Tuesday, Baba-Ahmed stated, “The same reason he cannot be president is why today Tinubu is not the vice president of Nigeria.”
“What couldn’t happen in 2015 when Buhari, the then-candidate, asked Tinubu for any nomination at all – because that configuration has passed – was impossible. In Nigeria, it no longer applies. A Muslim-Muslim ticket no longer works.
The Labour Party candidate stressed the importance of having faith in Nigeria’s political structure, arguing that the country’s sociopolitical makeup is not a random occurrence and that “that configuration cannot work anymore.”
“The maker of the sky and earth doesn’t commit errors. He declared, “This is the Federal Republic of Nigeria as properly filed and registered with the United Nations.”
“It is not, for instance, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Vatican, Iran, Libya, or Mauritania. It is a federal republic, and God did not make a mistake in placing all 250 members of our tribe there.
Nearly every country has a single religion, language, and population. Nigeria is not the same: there are at least 250 tribes and two major competing religions. Additionally, we assert that our creator did not make a mistake.
He claims that fifteen of the 18 political parties that put forward candidates for the presidency are trailing.
He went on to say that two of the remaining three have “misconfigured themselves,” claiming that they have “fallen out of alignment with the dictates of winning elections in Nigeria.”