Wike says Nigeria not ripe for Muslim-Muslim ticket, insists on zoning

Our reporter/ Nigeria is “not ripe” for a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket, Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike said on Sunday.

The outspoken governor of oil rich Rivers state stated this at the special dedication service for the Rivers state Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 2023 election campaign rallies held at the St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Port Harcourt, the Rivers capital.

According to a statement by his spokesman, Kelvin Ebiri, Wike also said it’s an insult to ignore zoning the presidency.

While the All Progressives Congress (APC) has fielded a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the presidency, the PDP presidential candidate is Atiku Abubakar, who is also a northerner like the incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari.

The leader of the aggrieved PDP governors further stated that it is important to ensure fair representation in the country’s political setting.

“You play on people’s intelligence. You say Nigeria is not ripe for Muslim-Muslim ticket, I agree. But Nigeria is ripe for presidency to remain in one zone? I mean, just look at the insult. You blow hot and cold,” he said.

“Most of you just sit there; you don’t ask yourselves questions. Somebody continues to sell these kind of cheap ideas. You don’t ask the person, ‘I agree with what you are saying but look at what we are saying here’.

“Your party wants the presidency to go to the same zone where President Muhammadu Buhari is coming from. Who is cheating who?

“It is not now that politics have come, you want to come and tell the church a different story for your own personal interest. We have to be careful so that the church is not destroyed, because, all of us, for example, we are Anglicans, I will not allow anybody, for his selfish interest to destroy the church of Nigeria. I will not allow that.”