The Governor Of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, has been ruled out as a running mate to whoever emerges as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress at the convention in December.
A source from the party, who spoke with Punch on the matter, said,Fashola’s religion, even though he is considered a performer, had ruled him out of the race for the vice presidential slot.
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He said, “You know that the South-West is a base for the APC and it also contributed immensely to its formation. We would have preferred Fashola because of his pedigree in the state. Moreover, of all the APC governors from the zone, he is the only one doing his second term.
“But this issue of religion is the problem. Apart from this, other APC governors from the zone are also Muslims. You may need to recall that the enemies of our party tried in vain before to label the party a Muslim party.
“Even though they have failed, we may also need to be guided by the words of advice from former President Olusegun Obasanjo against any party fielding same religion ticket. This is what is hampering us concerning Fashola, whose performance and competence cannot be queried.”
He said since it was almost certain that the party would field a Muslim as its presidential candidate, it would therefore be out of place to field another Muslim [Babatunde Fashola] as the running mate.
Apart from General Muhammadu Buhari, the party also has three other known presidential aspirants. They are a former VP Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwakwanso; and a newspaper publisher, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah.
Out of them, only Nda-Isaiah is a Christian.
The source said that though Fashola remained the best candidate for the position, he however regretted that the issue of religion would deny the party and the country the chance of fielding the governor.
“South-West are not religious but we are dealing with a larger society now. So, we must be careful.”
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