Atiku: I rejected Tinubu as my running mate in 2007 because of Muslim-Muslim ticket

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar on Friday said Muslim-Muslim ticket made him reject Asiwaju Bola Tinubu when he wanted to be his running mate in 2007.

Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the ruling APC in the 2023 Presidential election, recently picked Senator Kashim Shettima, a fellow Muslim as running mate and this has been generating controversy in the country.

Atiku, who served as the deputy of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007, in an interview with ARISE TV, said the Muslim-Muslim ticket, made him not to choose Tinubu at the time.

“The Muslim-Muslim ticket has always been my fundamental disagreement. Nigeria is a multiethnic and multi-religious nation and there should be a religious balance in our leadership,” he said.

“He (Tinubu) insisted on running with me and I didn’t believe it was right to have a Muslim-Muslim ticket. That was the point of my fundamental departure with him.”

When asked about his relationship with Tinubu, Atiku said, “I’m still a friend of him, and being friends with him doesn’t mean we can’t have our political differences.”

Atiku contested the 2007 presidential election on the platform of Action Congress (AC), but finished a distant third in the election won by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, President Muhammadu Buhari of the then All Nigerians Peoples Party (ANPP) came second.