What Is Happening With APC Presidential Ticket For 2015?

An alleged move by the All Progressives Congress to present a Muslim/Muslim presidential ticket is believed to have put the party in a fresh dilemma. There had been speculation that APC was preparing to present a ex-Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari and former Governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, as its presidential and vice-presidential candidates.

It was, however, gathered in Abuja on Thursday that the APC strategists and stakeholders had been holding a series of formal and informal consultations over the issue.

Party sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the issue was the party’s “biggest headache as the 2015 polls draw near.”

One of the source said, “Some have suggested a Babatunde Fashola/Adams Oshiomhole ticket but this was thrown out. Others suggested a Rabiu Kwakwanso/Fashola ticket and it was turned down, yet others suggested Aminu Tambuwual/Fashola ticket and it was also rejected before the Buhari/Tinubu ticket came up...

“What some of our leaders don’t seem to understand is that this is not 1993. Neither Buhari nor Tinubu is an Abiola whose generosity transcended ethnic and religious lines on a national scale.”

The source told Punch that the issue is threatening to polarise the opposition party along ethno-religious lines.

An APC member and a former Minister of Aviation, Mr. Femi Fani- Kayade, had asked the party to perish any thought of presenting a Muslim/Muslim ticket because it would hurt the Christian community.

But another former minister, Nasir el-Rufai, who is currently the APC’s Interim Deputy National Secretary, said the party would present acceptable candidates irrespective of ethnic or religious considerations.

El-Rufai, in a statement on his Facebook account, said Nigerians should be looking for competence instead of issues of ethnicity or religious affiliations.

He said, “The APC presidential ticket: Those speculating on this and advising me on all manner of persons and religions should know my views. The APC will present an integrity-competence ticket not religion. Politics and governance are not to be mixed or dictated to by any religion.

“The APC will present to Nigerians the best persons with the integrity, capacity and competence to create jobs, fight corruption and rebuild our nation without discrimination.

“How these persons worship God is private to them and does not matter to discerning Nigerians, particularly young people that suffer most from bad governance, unemployment and the ‘Jonathanian’ culture of impunity.”

The Interim National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, however, said on Thursday that the race for the party’s presidential ticket is open to eligible members, in spite of all the speculations.

He said: “We should not constrict the space to old generation politicians let new blood come. In politics like I always say, one day is too long not to talk of one week, one month and a whole year.”