From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Yekini Nabena, has argued that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) abandoning the zoning arrangement is more harmful to the unity of Nigeria than APC’s Muslim-Muslim joint ticket.
He insisted that Nigerians should be more worried that the opposition party killed fairness and conventional power rotation between the North and South, than the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the ruling party.
Nabena, pleaded with Nigerians to ignore the unnecessary cry from the opposition parties, emphasising that there are Muslims in the North, as well as all part of the South, hence Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC is harmless.
Addressing reporters on Tuesday in Abuja, the APC chieftain gave the example of the South-South geopolitical zone where most of the states have Christian-Christian Governor and Deputy, the states are yet to develop despite their huge oil revenues and huge oil revenues.
The former APC spokesman also argued that a single faith ticket is not new in Nigeria according to history, listing Buhari/Idiagbon Muslim-Muslim ticket, and Gowon/Adewale Christian-Christian ticket in the past.
“Heaven did not fall. In 2011, when the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) fielded Nuhu Ribadu and Fola Adeola, both Muslims, there was no cry by the opposition because the ticket stood no chance of winning.
“None of those agitating against the Muslim-Muslim ticket on the basis of fairness have considered the African traditional worshippers. How fair is it that we are agitating for fairness and equity to share power between Christians and Muslims while completely ignoring and alienating our African traditional worshippers, where is the justice?
“Nigeria should worry more about the zoning arrangement which the PDP has just killed for their selfish interest and desperation of its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, because of his last chance which will become one-chance by 2023,” he quipped.
On whether a Muslim-Muslim ticket will fly in the South-south where he hails from, Nabena said: “In the South-south where we have Christian-Christian ticket for the Governor and Deputy there is still no tangible development. Take, for example, the NDDC headed by a Christian Minister and a Christian Managing Director, what is the result?
“The APC has done the right thing by zoning the presidency to the South. Nigerians must know that religion is a matter of individual race, the most important thing is that the presidency is in the South compared to PDP’s unfair treatment of the South.
“PDP zoned the presidency to the North while the incumbent president is from the North, a Muslim and Fulani man, just like Atiku. This actually calls for anger and not harmless Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC,” Nabena said.