All Progressives Congress presidential candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu said it would be politically correct to pick a Christian vice president, but he needed a VP that can help him govern.
“I selected Senator Shettima thinking more about who would best help me govern. Picking a Christian running mate would have been politically easier,” explained Mr. Tinubu.
“But the easy way is rarely the right one. The selection of a running mate is at once a very momentous yet very intimate decision.”
The APC presidential candidate argued further, in somewhat prevarication, that “resting such a key decision on religious affiliation as the primary weight did not sit well with me,” but “I am not saying there were no good and adequate potential running mates of the Christian faith.”
The former Lagos governor made this assertion when he met the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) on Wednesday in Abuja, according to a statement by his spokesman Tunde Rahman.
The statement revealed that the CAN leadership, through its new president Daniel Ukoh presented a charter of demands and issues to the APC presidential candidate.
Defending his religious tolerance, Mr Tinubu stated, “I instituted yearly Christian denomination service at the governor’s residence as we approached the new year. This tradition continues in Lagos.”
He added, “More importantly, we fostered an atmosphere of religious tolerance and inter-faith collaboration. My cabinet was diverse and talented. In the exercise of government, I did not give a thought to whether a team member was Christian or Muslim, Yoruba, Igbo or Arewa. I have never lent myself to baseless prejudice and discrimination.”
On his choice of Mr Shettima as running mate, the APC standard-bearer insisted that he did not choose the politician “so that we could form a same-faith ticket” but that the ticket “was constructed as a same-progressive and people-based ideology ticket.” (NAN)
