By our reporter| The Senator representing Abia north, Orji Kalu on Wednesday said that a Muslim-Muslim ticket is the way forward if the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) wants to win the 2023 presidential election.
The Senate chief whip and former governor of Abia state, who stated this in a chat with reporters at the National Assembly complex in Abuja, said the ruling party may lose the election if it fails to go for the option of a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket, considering the present situation it has found itself.
“If we don’t play Muslim-Muslim (ticket), we are in trouble,” he stated.
“It will be difficult to win the election because the only thing left for Ahmed Tinubu today is to play Muslim-Muslim.
“What is wrong with Muslim-Muslim ticket? I don’t see anything wrong. There is nothing wrong with a Christian-Christian ticket also, it depends on the condition.
“The condition that we have found ourselves today is that you cannot play two minorities – Tinubu is a minority Muslim from the South and if you put a Christian from the North, it is a minority Christian from the North. What I am telling you is sincerely from my mind; it is not the position of our party.”
The controversial lawmaker who was in 2018 freed from prison by the supreme court on technical grounds, further argued that it was impossible for a southern minority Muslim and a northern minority Christian to win a presidential election in Nigeria.
According to him, the priority of APC should be winning the presidential election in 2023 and not the religious and ethnic affiliation of its vice-presidential candidate.
“If I am in Ahmed Bola Tinubu’s situation – the wife is a senior pastor in a Pentecostal church, I will go (for a) Muslim-Muslim ticket,” the lawmaker said. “The most important thing is for the party to win.
“Already the wife is a pastor and they have been living together for over 50 years. She’s already like a deputy president, if I’m to say; I am saying my opinion, this is Orji Kalu’s opinion. You cannot deny me my opinion, but you can also play a Christian-Christian ticket, depending on the scenario.”
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