As controversy continues to trail insinuations that presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, would likely pick a Muslim running mate from the north, former aide to President Muhammadu Buhari on new media, Bashir Ahmad, says nothing wrong with the idea. 

Presidential candidate of the ruling APC, Mr Tinubu, and that of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, are of the same Islamic religion. 

A member of the APC and Islamic fanatic who supports the death penalty for blasphemy against Islam’s prophet Muhammad, Mr Ahmad believes that a presidential ticket of the same religion would help to eliminate religious prejudice in politics. 

Taking to his Twitter account on Saturday, Mr Ahmad said that the Muslim-Muslim ticket worked out in Kaduna, a religiously divided state governed by Nasir El-Rufai.

He said even though he is not supporting a same-religion ticket, it worked out in Kaduna. 

“I’m not blindly supporting or pushing for a Muslim/Muslim or Christian/Christian tickets, but consciously know that either of the two will help us to reduce or get rid of the politics that is solely based on religious prejudice in this country. It helped Kaduna”.  

Kaduna Governor El-Rufai, who is one of the contenders for the APC vice-president slot, has continued to fly the kite for a Muslim-Muslim ticket. 

Mr El-Rufai had appeared on a Channels TV programme to canvass for a Muslim-Muslim ticket, arguing that if he could win Kaduna governorship by fielding a Muslim woman as deputy, Mr Tinubu could do the same. 

Mr Ahmad’s tweet came less than 24 hours after the Christian Association of Nigeria warned presidential candidates in the 2023 election to shelve any plans of fielding candidates of the same-religion.