Political Dance: Tinubu, Atiku, Rev. Mbaka Hold The Spotlight

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Post created on 10:57 am

 

 

Barring last minute changes, multiple sources yesterday said the immediate past governor of Borno State, Senator Kashim Shettima, would be picked as running mate to All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The sources said that the APC presidential candidate would do a Muslim-Muslim ticket.

When asked if Shettima’s choice was definite, the source said: “Nothing is concrete for now. His name was among those being mentioned. The others are not being mentioned the way Shettima is being mentioned.

“The likes of Boss Mustapha are also being mentioned. Shettima remains the top choice.”

This came as Chief Whip of the Senate and former Governor of Abia State, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu (APC, Abia North) told journalists yesterday that the best option for Tinubu is to pick a Muslim running mate to brighten his chances of winning the 2023 presidential poll.

According to him, it would be politically naive for Tinubu, a minority Muslim from the South-West, to choose a minority Christian from the North as his running mate.

He urged Christians to relax, disclosing that the wife of the APC presidential candidate, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, is a pastor in a renowned pentecostal church.

Kalu, said that what was paramount was for the APC to win the presidential election in 2023, stressing that a Southern minority Muslim and a Northern minority Christian can’t win the presidential election in Nigeria.

At the Peoples’ Democrat Party, PDP camp, there were reports on Wednesday that a committee headed by the PDP Deputy Chairman, Ambassador Umaru Damagun, had on Tuesday nominated Wike as the running mate of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar when 13 out of the 17 members voted in favour of the Rivers State governor.

When contacted on Wednesday, the PDP spokesman, Debo Ologunagba, said the nomination of Wike remained a rumour.

But a member of the PDP advisory committee disclosed to one of our correspondents on Wednesday that three names were recommended by the panel and would face the screening committee of the party before the party’s final decision would be made known to the public.

The source said, “The matter is not in the hands of Atiku yet, When the committee members are done with their job, they will report back to the leadership of the party.

“That committee recommended three people, not just one as is currently being speculated in the media.”

But according to the Coalition of South-South and South-East Youth Forum, Okowa remains the best man for vice-presidential slot.

The Coordinator of the group, Mr Eziwomano Ighoegwu, in an interview stated that, “Governor Okowa is a man with proven records that can deliver peace and unity to Nigerians, adding that his good work of transforming the state and ensuring peaceful co-existence among indigenes and non-indigenes of the state, can be attested to.

In another development, Renowned Catholic Priest, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka has come under fire over his comments on presidential candidate of the Labour Party,  LP, Peter Obi.

Mbaka had said in one of his preachings that Obi can never be Nigeria’s President.

It will be recalled that Mbaka, at his Adoration Ministry in Enugu State, had declared that, unless God ceases to exist, Obi would never smell the seat of the President.

The Reverend Father had stated that, “it was better to have an old man as President than a “stingy young man.”

Meanwhile, there have been calls by some Nigerians to the Catholic Church authority to call the cleric to order.