Atiku: I Told Tinubu Nigeria Not Ripe For Presidential Candidates With Same Faith
The former Vice President and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has disclosed that he parted ways politically with the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, AsiwajunBola Tinubu,15 years ago, over his idea of Muslim-Muslim ticket.
Atiku made this disclosure in an exclusive interview with Arise TV on Friday morning.
He said that Tinubu had over the years been an advocate of the Muslim-Muslim ticket and that he had tried on different occasions to achieve it but was unsuccessful.
Atiku stressed that all efforts to make Tinubu understand that the country was not ripe to present presidential candidates with the same faith for an election in the country remained abortive.
The PDP candidate noted that the country was not a one-faith nation and that allowing the president and his running mate to assume leadership of the country was not right.
Atiku said: “We will go to battle with APC. My fundamental disagreement with Tinubu since 2007 was due to the Muslim-Muslim ticket issue. And this formed my reason to have parted ways with him politically.
“I remember I left PDP on the issue of zoning and together with him we formed the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), I was given the ticket and Tinubu insisted that he must be my running mate.
“But I turned the demands down that I will not contest the election on a Muslim-Muslim ticket base. And due to that, he switched his support to the late Umar Yar’ Adua during the poll.
“And that was the parting point. And of course in 2015 when Buhari emerged through the primary, I opposed the Muslim-Muslim ticket when it was brought to the table. And my decision then made Buhari change his plans and went for someone that is not of the same faith as him, a Christian.
“Before now, I have often opposed it. I do not believe that the country is ripe for that at the moment. We are a multi-religious country and we should give all faiths the opportunity”.
