The Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde
Fashola (SAN), has been ruled out as a running
mate to the presidential candidate of the All
Progressives Congress anytime the candidate
emerges, investigation by The PUNCH has
revealed.
A highly placed source in the party, who spoke
with our correspondent on condition of
anonymity in Abuja on Sunday, said that
Fashola’s religion had ruled him out of the race.
He said since it was almost certain that the
party would field a Muslim as its presidential
candidate, it would therefore be out of place to
field another Muslim as the running mate.
Apart from a former Head of State, Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), the party also has
three other known presidential aspirants.
They are a former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku
Abubakar; Governor of Kano State, Rabiu
Kwakwanso; and a newspaper publisher, Mr.
Sam Nda-Isaiah.
Out of them, only Nda-Isaiah is a Christian.
The source said that though Fashola remained
the best candidate for the position, he however
regretted that the issue of religion would deny
the party and the country the chance of fielding
the governor.
He said, “You know that the South-West is a
base for the APC and it also contributed
immensely to its formation. We would have
preferred Fashola because of his pedigree in the
state. Moreover, of all the APC governors from
the zone, he is the only one doing his second
term.
“But this issue of religion is the problem. Apart
from this, other APC governors from the zone
are also Muslims. You may need to recall that
the enemies of our party tried in vain before to
label the party a Muslim party.
“Even though they have failed, we may also need
to be guided by the words of advice from former
President Olusegun Obasanjo against any party
fielding same religion ticket. This is what is
hampering us concerning Fashola, whose
performance and competence cannot be queried.”
The source said that even though the national
leadership of the party was aware that the
people of the “South-West are not religious but
we are dealing with a larger society now. So, we
must be careful.”
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