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Babachir Lawal, a former secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), has urged Nigerians to vote against Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the 2023 presidential election, because he chose a fellow Muslim, Kashim Shettima, as his running mate.
Lawal, who made the plea on Friday at the APC Northern Christian Leaders Summit in Abuja, claimed that opting for a Muslim-Muslim ticket was a slap on the nation’s Christians and part of a plan to keep the Northern Christians under control and oppressed.
He continued by advising Nigerian Christians to oppose the move through prayer and the use of their Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) in the elections of 2023.
“We will protect ourselves. The PVC and our prayers will be our weapons of choice and we will massively deploy them in 2023,” Lawal said while addressing the Forum.
“The main purpose of this historical narrative is to let you know that for the APC, a Muslim-Muslim ticket has been a long-term political strategy and not a one-off decision.
“Thus, all this talk of competence as the reason for the choice of the Muslim VP is balderdash and diversionary. This is a calculated anti-Christian exclusion agenda that is being implemented.
“One might ask: why is the APC itself mute about our rejection of this Muslim-Muslim ticket? And why has none of the other perpetrators of this crisis reached out to Christians for a dialogue?
“Why are they instead hiring fake Bishops and taking church groups to further embarrass the church? Why are they embarking on a vicious media war against CAN and the church instead of seeking reconciliation? Truly, things are not adding up.
“We see this ticket as an assent to the current and continuing educational, economic and political marginalization of the Northern Nigerian Christians.
“This scenario is what we find in all agencies of governments in the north. Therefore, we view this Muslim-Muslim ticket as an extension of this practice of exclusion to the uppermost level of government,” he added.