Muslim-Muslim ticket: Osinbajo falls out with APC, Tinubu; In talks with Kwankwaso  

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has fallen out with the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the presidential flagbearer of the party for the 2023 election, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, over the adoption of a Muslim-Muslim ticket, with the announcement on Sunday, of Senator Kashim Shettima as Tinubu’s running mate.

Professor Osinbajo’s posture is said to have ignited a new wave of tension in the seat of power as he and his supporters are said to have gone ahead to begin realignment talks with Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) with the aim of presenting a “more balanced” presidential ticket.

A source within the presidency revealed that the Vice President, who is the most senior elected Christian official in the country is unhappy that his warning that a Muslim-Muslim ticket would not augur well for both the country and the party was totally ignored, hence the speculation that a new coalition is being built to challenge the status quo and present a faith-balanced platform has heightened.

According to the source, “Prof. Osinbajo is opposed to this thing announced on Sunday, and his objections are well known both to the party and even the flagbearer himself.”

The presidential source confirmed that the VP’s opposition of a Muslim- Muslim ticket in 2014, was what made the then presidential flagbearer, Muhammadu Buhari to drop the idea of running the election on the same ticket as Tinubu, as he agreed with the law professor’s position that the one faith option was untenable.

Osinbajo was later picked as the presidential running mate to balance the ticket, which, the source said, “did not go down well with Tinubu and his supporters, with the two-term governor of Lagos State resisting the eventual nomination of Osinbajo by Buhari as his running mate.”

When Buhari insisted on running the election with Osinbajo instead of Tinubu, the source continued, “Tinubu and his supporters could no longer do anything about it but had to play along.”

Buhari’s view then, which aligned with that of Osinbajo, was that a Muslim-Muslim ticket would clearly alienate the Christian community across the country at a time when religious sensibilities had become so widespread. Many believe that such sensibilities have even deepened further, eight years after, with the persecution of Christians across the country, the activities of insurgents and bandits as well as those of rampaging and murderous herdsmen.

Besides his 2015 opposition to a Muslim-Muslim ticket, the Vice President has recently been quoted as counselling that the APC should shun the option, insisting that “the logic, fairness and justice of a balanced ticket is unassailable,” and insisting that “anything short of a balanced ticket would create needless tension and further aggravate some of the country’s already sore fault- lines.”

Apparently unhappy with the posture of the APC and its presidential flagbearer, the Vice President is said to have started realignment talks with NNPP’s Kwankwaso. Our usually reliable source said that a meeting to explore such a possibility is now in the works.

A statement by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday, confirmed that NNPP is one of two parties that so far have not submitted a list of its nominees to the electoral commission, an indication that anything could still happen.

Also, Christian leaders, including heads of major denominations in the country are now said to be considering reaching out to eminent Nigerians, a former president and even top party chieftains across some of the leading political parties in the country on the need to offer the Nigerian electorate a “saner option which does not relegate any religion to a perpetual second class.”