Abdullahi Sule, governor of Nasarawa, has expressed that the presence of clerics at the unveiling of Kashim Shettima as the vice-presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) shows acceptance of the Muslim-Muslim ticket.
Sule spoke on Wednesday in an interview with Channels Television.
On July 10, Bola Tinubu, a Muslim from the south-west, announced Shettima, a Muslim from the north-east, as his running mate for the 2023 presidential election.
The Muslim-Muslim ticket had elicited criticism from some Nigerians who described it as an “injustice” to the Christian community.
Earlier on Wednesday, the unveiling ceremony took place at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua centre in Abuja.
Some persons robed in apparel peculiar to Christian clerics, attended the event to show support for the APC vice-presidential candidate.
Also Read: Muslim-Muslim Ticket: It’s A Nigerian Project — Not Sectional Agenda, Says Shettima
Speaking on the development, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) had criticised the APC, saying “artisans” were hired to act like clerics.
Reacting to questions on the Muslim-Muslim ticket, the Nasarawa governor said Tinubu convinced members of the party that Shettima is the right vice-presidential candidate owing to the latter’s qualities.
“Shettima is somebody who is bold and not afraid. He was out there with Boko Haram at the beginning of these issues and he is somebody who believes in the economy. He was a one-time banker,” Sule said.
“He (Tinubu) presented all these factors that made it possible for him to select this gentleman. So, at the end of the day, he was able to convince the party and most of us that he (Shettima) is the the right candidate.
“That is why I said you have some who will support and some who will not support, and it is not according to religious lines, because if you have all these men of God — leaders in their churches — who have come forward to say that they are 100 percent in support of this, then you know it has gone beyond religious lines.”
