From Okwe Obi, Abuja
A group known as Nigeria Democracy Defence Watch, has warned the leadership of the All Progressives Congress against presenting a Muslim/Muslim ticket in the 2023 presidential election, stating that the plans would affect the fortune of the party.
The group’s National Coordinator and National Secretary, Ahmed Ibrahim Adamu and Adeniji Niyi Adegoke, in a 7 page letter written to President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, also pointed out the plan would portray Nigeria as an Islamic and a sectarian nation.
They further stressed that millions of Christians, moderate and progressive Muslims and civic groups, ethno-cultural associations and enlightened members of the International community, would rise against it.
The statement read: “Nigeria Democracy Defence Watch is therefore calling on President Buhari to direct the security forces to do the needful by advising Sen Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the ruling party on the possible threats this action could pose to security in the country.
“It is pertinent to note the serious implications of the above with regards to security.
“This is especially when one rightly imagines that Christians will feel threatened with a Muslim/Muslim ticket, and may resort to pulpit preachings and mobilization of opinions across the Christendom.
“Civil society organizations and students would likely protest this destructive introduction into our polity in various manners which may constitute security concerns.
“However, it should be noted that the ‘original sin’ is the adoption of a Muslim/Muslim ticket by the ruling APC, and not the reactions and responses that may follow it.
“The West African sub – regional, and indeed, African regional peace and security are basically predicated on the presumption of Nigeria’s political stability, or at least, the absence of any conflict that can overwhelm the Nigerian State.
“This is because there is nothing in the African Peace and Security Architecture that is designed to contain a conflict in Africa’s largest population of over 200 million people in a country that shares very porous borders with three sub – regions – West, Central and North Africa.
“In the first place, its humanitarian consequences are frightening to imagine – in the event of a civil war or armed conflict in Nigeria, there will be a complete sub – regional melt down in 72 hours, if just 5 percent of the Nigerian population crosses the borders.
“Its economic repercussions will be a total calamity across the entire sub regions of West and Central Africa.
“The security implication of weapons proliferation and explosion of the two deadly terrorist organizations currently based in Nigeria, into the rest of the entire continent of Africa, can only be better be imagined.
“We therefore implore you to use your good offices to weigh in on Sen Bola Ahmed Tinubu to thread with caution and refrain from his unyielding desire to foist on the nation a Muslim-Muslim ticket which if it succeeds will make the above tragic and destructive humanitarian quagmire a distinct possibility.”
