Muslim-Muslim ticket: Tinubu and I disagreed in 2007 over running mate issue- Atiku
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate ,Atiku Abubakar, said on Friday that a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket is the reason for his “fundamental disagreement” with Bola Tinubu, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), since 2007.
Atiku spoke in a chat with Arise TV on Friday.
Recall that Tinubu had picked Kashim Shettima, former governor of Borno, as his running mate for the APC presidential ticket. The development elicited outrage from key stakeholders due to the fact that both of them are Muslims.
Recall also that the former President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, had traced the genesis of his travails to a political disagreement with Tinubu, suggesting that Mr. Tinubu was after him because he blocked his (Tinubu) attempt to be the running mate to President Muhammadu Buhari before the 2015 election.
Atiku and Tinubu were allies during the lead-up to the 2007 general election. The former vice-president had left the PDP to become the presidential candidate of the Action Congress (AC), with Tinubu as the leading chieftain of the party.
The party however lost the presidential election to PDP’s Umaru Yar’Adua, with Atiku later returning to PDP.
Although they reunited when APC was formed in 2014, they have since been on the opposite sides of the political divide.
Reacting to Tinubu’s choice of a Muslim running mate, Atiku said it was why he “departed politically” from the former Lagos governor.
He claimed that Tinubu had wanted to be his running mate for the AC presidential ticket, and he refused.
Atiku added that he and Tinubu are “still friends” but they “have political differences”.
“My fundamental disagreement and political departure with Asiwaju [Tinubu] since 2007 was due to the Muslim-Muslim ticket. Remember, I opted out of PDP because of zoning, and together with Asiwaju we formed ACN,” the PDP candidate said.
“Tinubu wanted to be my running mate when I was given the ACN presidential ticket in 2007, but I disagreed. And because of that, he switched his support to the late Umar Yaradua. That was the parting point.
“The Muslim-Muslim ticket has always been my fundamental disagreement. Nigeria is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious nation, and there should be a religious balance in our leadership.
“We are still friends, of course. But that doesn’t mean we won’t have political differences. We have been having political differences ever since we became friends. Nothing unusual about that.”
