The Muslim Muslim ticket of the All Progressives Congress may have finally set former vice president and People’s Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar on the warpath with his long-time associate and presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Atiku while fielding questions on Arise TV interview on Friday accused the APC of lack of sensitivity to the religious sensibilities of Nigerians and further claimed that the former Lagos State Governor had always wanted a Muslim Muslim ticket.
Atiku alleged that as the presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress in the 2007 presidential election, his rebuff of Tinubu’s lobby to emerge as his Vice Presidential candidate was the beginning of their political enmity.
But speaking through his media aide, Tunde Rahman, the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Tinubu accused Atiku Abubakar of falsehood.
Tinubu declared that “in his desperate attempt to win the election by stoking religious bias, Atiku has reduced himself to uttering baseless lies on national television.
“We are saddened to see such a man become unhinged from the truth. So obsessed is he with his quest for office, Atiku is willing to render any form of untruth if he thinks it might gain him a single vote. Atiku may want to be president. However, all he has shown is that he is pathological.”
“Whatever moral compass he had has been lost. During a 22 July television interview, Atiku assaulted historic truth by lying that he did not name Tinubu as his running mate in 2007 on the Action Congress ticket because Atiku did not want a Muslim as his running mate.”
Going down memory lane, Tinubu recalled that Atiku was not among those who founded the Action Congress.
“It was the actual founders of the AC who offered the party’s flag to Atiku because of the need to fight the authoritarian designs then President Obasanjo and the PDP had on Nigeria’s democracy.
“At that moment, Atiku had been unceremoniously pushed aside if not out of the PDP by Obasanjo. We needed to rally all forces to confront the one-party state Obasanjo had in mind. Atiku was simply a beneficiary of this collective duty to fight the attack on multi-party democracy the PDP had launched.
“I feel sorry for dear old Atiku. Love of his own ambition has eclipsed his relationship with the truth and an honest account of the past. We formed the AC without his knowledge. When President Obasanjo virtually exiled him from the PDP, we lent him our support by giving him the AC platform for the 2007 election.
“Let me say openly that Atiku offered me the vice presidential ticket in 2007. Let me also say that my religion has not changed. When he offered the position to me, I was a Muslim and I believe he was aware of my religious faith at the time.”
Speaking further, the APC presidential candidate accused his estranged associate of “paucity of character and love of intrigue,” in his desperation for the exalted seat of the President of Nigeria.
Tinubu recalled that in the aborted Third Republic in 1993, Atiku who lost the defunct Social Democratic Party presidential ticket to the late Moshood Kashimawo Abiola sought desperately to be running mate to Abiola when he knew that the latter was a fellow Muslim.
“True to form, Atiku, fifteen years later, promised Governor Nyesom Wike the same thing this electoral season and similarly reneged. Governor Wike is a Christian.
“When it comes to intrigue, we can say that Atiku is without bias. He will attempt to lie and deceive both Christian and Muslims with equal vigour.
“Atiku has no business raising the issue of a Muslim-Muslim ticket except as a hypocrite. Perhaps he believes people have forgotten his antics during the 1993 election. After he woefully lost his bid to be the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, what did he do? “He canvassed and lobbied harder than anyone to become the running mate to late Chief MKO Abiola. When it benefitted him personally, Atiku did not see anything wrong with a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
He saw everything right in such a ticket as long as he was on it.”
The APC presidential candidate further restated his stance that his choice of former Borno State Governor, Senator Kashim Shettima as the running mate had nothing to do with his faith but competence experience, ability, and vision.
“Now, Atiku criticizes my selection as running mate based on religion. He does so because he cannot criticize it on other grounds. If Atiku were to have one of his rare moments of honesty, he would admit that the person I selected as my running mate is more qualified for the position than the man who joined him. And this conclusion has nothing to do with religious faith. It has everything to do with competence, experience, ability, and vision.
“My running mate and I are here to build a more just and prosperous society for all Nigerians, be they Christian, Muslim or adherents of other faiths. It seems that Atiku is here trying to build an edifice of lies and call that the house into which Nigerians should walk and reside. He will fail in this sad attempt to trick an entire nation.
“Let me restate my position on religion and politics. When I decided that Senator Shettima was the best selection as my running mate, I listened to and weighed in serious balance the advice received from a broad and representative array of wonderful Nigerians who deeply care about this nation and the path it must go.
“Some people counselled that I should select a Christian to garner the support of the Christian community. Some said I should select a Muslim for a similar reason. I clearly could not do both. Both positions had merit and right on their side. But neither position expressed what was most right and needed for the moment in which we find ourselves and the nation.
“All my life, the decisions regarding the team supporting me have always been guided by the principles of competence, innovation, compassion, integrity, fairness, and adherence to excellence. I was not going to depart from these principles at this important juncture. In fact, it was more important than ever before that I adhere to these principles.
“As Governor of Lagos State, these principles helped me assemble one of the most capable governing cabinets any state or this nation has seen. I trust in these principles to allow them to, once more, guide me to construct another exemplary team that can do Nigeria proud.
“In this crucial moment, where so much is at stake, we must prioritize leadership, competence, and the ability to work as a team over other considerations.
“This is the standard I will use to select the rest of my campaign team and if you elect me as your president when I staff my government. I will select the best people for the right jobs so that we can construct a better Nigeria now and for generations yet to come.”
Credit: Nigerian Tribune