The Coalition for Peace and Progress has called for the nomination of a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, as Tinubu’s running mate.
Addressing journalists on Saturday in Kaduna, the coalition’s National Coordinator, Dr Muhammad Chindo, said in keeping with the tradition of democracy, a lot of lobbying and search were ongoing to pick a capable and acceptable running mate for Tinubu.
He said such a candidate must be acceptable to the APC and the entire country.
“Above all, it is imperative that the future vice-president must be a Christian who can transcend primordial sentiments bordering on religion and the twin evils of tribalism and sectionalism in the country, for which Dogara is most appropriate,” he said.
Describing Dogara as a good Christian who would promote the cause of unity and togetherness among the diverse and heterogeneous citizens of Nigeria, Chindo said he was a viable candidate to run together with the APC presidential flag bearer.
Similarly, the General Overseer of All Christians Fellowship Mission in Maitama, Abuja, and former Chaplain of Aso Villa during the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, Rev Williams Okoye, has said a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the 2023 presidential election will be the height of insensitivity because the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), “has encouraged all kinds of bigotry and discrimination.”
Okoye, who is also the Director of the National Issues in the Christian Association of Nigeria, said the church would move completely against any political party that tried a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
Okoye said, “It is the height of insensitivity for anybody to consider Muslim-Muslim ticket or Christian-Christian ticket at this time because since this government came into place and has encouraged all kinds of bigotry and discrimination, these things have been heightened.
“People are so sensitive now to religious matters and ethnicity. So, if you go and start talking now about a Muslim-Muslim ticket or Christian-Christian ticket, it shows you are not sensitive to what is going on with the feelings of the masses.”
A prominent member of the Tinubu Campaign Organisation also said the presidential candidate had reduced the search for his running mate to Borno, Kano and Kaduna states.
He said the need for further consultations made the former Lagos State governor to return to Abuja after his brief stay in Lagos.
The source said, “Asiwaju is back in Abuja. He needs to make further consultations on this issue of running mate. He will meet with all stakeholders like members of the Progressives Governors’ Forum, members of the APC in the National Assembly, former governors produced by the party and he will even have discussions with the President on the issue.
“The issue is dragging on for too long and we do not like it. That’s why the man hurriedly left Lagos for Abuja. He is no longer a Lagos man now, but a national figure working to become the President.”