Muslim-Muslim ticket: Tinubu planned to be my running mate in 2007 but I disagreed – Atiku

Atiku said "the Muslim-Muslim ticket has always been his fundamental disagreement with Tinubu. Nigeria is a multiethnic and multi-religious nation and there should be a religious balance in our leadership".

Ilesanmi AdekanbiJuly 22, 2022

2 minutes read

The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has given the reason to reject former Lagos State Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu as his running mate in 2007.

Atiku said he rejected Tinubu, now the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to be his running mate in 2007 because of a Muslim-Muslim ticket.

Atiku, former Vice President said this in an interview with Arise TV on Friday monitored by Newsflash Nigeria.

Atiku made it clear that when he defected to Tinubu’s then Action Congress (AC) in 2006, he was given some conditions before he got the presidential ticket for the 2007 election. According to him, the topmost was to pick Tinubu as running mate.

The PDP Presidential Candidate said the Muslim-Muslim ticket has always been his fundamental disagreement with Tinubu. Nigeria is a multiethnic and multi-religious nation and there should be a religious balance in leadership.

Why I picked Okowa over Wike as my running mate – Atiku opens up

He said ”My fundamental disagreement with Asiwaju since 2007 was on the issue of a Muslim-Muslim ticket, which led to my political departure from Asiwaju’

Atiku said he rejected the request and picked Senator Ben Obi from Anambra State because Obi is a Christian in the South East.

In his words, “When I joined the Action Congress (AC), which my friend, Bola, set up, he gave me a set of conditions for giving me the ticket. He said that I should make him vice president. I said no, I am not going to make you vice president; instead, I took Ben Obi.”

“Nigeria is a multiethnic and multi-religious nation and there should be a religious balance in our leadership”.

Atiku Abubakar, also speaking about his former running mate, Peter Obi who dumped PDP to Labour Party to bid for the presidential candidate.

Atiku said he is not expecting the Labour Party (LP) to pull off a surprise to win the 2023 presidential election.

Speaking on the chances of the LP in the 2023 elections, the PDP presidential candidate said the LP will not divide the votes meant for the PDP as suggested in some quarters.

Atiku questioned the performance of the LP in the just concluded governorship election in Osun, saying the party does not have governors, members of the national assembly and state assemblies.

“I really don’t expect the Labour Party to take as many votes from the PDP as people are suggesting,” he said.

“We could have seen it in the last election in Osun state. What is the performance of the Labour Party?

“This is a party that doesn’t have a governor, doesn’t have members of the national assembly, doesn’t have state assembly members, and politics in this country depends on the structures you have at the various levels — at the local government level, at the state level, and the national level.”

Speaking further, the former vice-president said 90 per cent of people in the north are not on social media, insinuating that it will limit the chances of the LP winning the 2023 presidential election.

“So, it is very difficult to expect a miracle to happen, simply because Peter Obi is in the Labour Party. After all, they were saying through social media, they had more than one million votes in Osun state,” he said.

“But how many voters turned for the Labour Party? And then again, mark you, you’re talking about social media. In the north, 90 per cent of our people are not tuned to social media.”