Labour Party’s vice-presidential candidate Datti Baba-Ahmed says APC’s Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket featuring Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima will fail because of its faulty “configuration.” Mr Baba-Ahmed argued that Nigeria is not a religious monolith like Saudi Arabia, Iran or the Vatican.

Mr Baba-Ahmed is a northern Muslim and running mate to Peter Obi (the Labour Party presidential flag bearer), a Christian from the South.

The vice-presidential standard-bearer stressed that Mr Tinubu lost out in his scheme to become President Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate in the 2015 presidential election because APC believed a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket would scuttle their potential victory at the polls.

“Why today Tinubu is not the vice-president of Nigeria is the same reason he cannot be president,” Mr Baba-Ahmed told Channels TV Tuesday night during an interview. “What couldn’t happen in 2015 when the then-candidate Buhari asked for any nomination whatsoever from Tinubu – because that configuration has passed. It can no longer work in Nigeria. (The) Muslim-Muslim ticket cannot work anymore.” 

Mr Baba-Ahmed added, “The creator of the heavens and earth does not make mistakes. This is the Federal Republic of Nigeria as duly filed at the United Nations and registered too. It’s not the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for example, or the Vatican or Iran or Libya or Mauritania. It’s a federal republic, and God didn’t make a mistake by putting all of us, 250 (tribes).” 

Mr Tinubu’s choice of a Muslim running mate elicited scathing criticisms, with many accusing the APC of an agenda to Islamise Nigeria.

Lawan Babachir, an estranged Tinubu ally and APC chieftain, threatened that Christians would vote against the APC, describing the ruling party’s Muslim-Muslim ticket as “satanic.”

Last July, Peoples Gazette exclusively reported that the State Security Service, in a secret memo to Mr Buhari, warned that Mr Tinubu’s choice of a Muslim vice-presidential candidate (Kashim Shettima) would trigger a sectarian crisis that could destabilise Nigeria.