TO APC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, BOLA AHMED TINUBU, PLEASE REPLACE KASSIM SHETTIMA AS YOUR RUNNING BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE FOR APC.

TO APC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, BOLA AHMED TINUBU, PLEASE REPLACE KASSIM SHETTIMA AS YOUR RUNNING BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE FOR APC.

Today is Wednesday, 13th July 2022. That leaves us with a day or two of the deadline for substitution of candidate for the 2023 general election.

Please, Your Excellency, do not allow this deadline pass us. Whoever advised you to hinge your 2023 electoral prospect on Muslim running mate did not think or advise well.

Come to think of it, Your Excellency, that advice is not only an insult to all Northern Christians, it is also an insult to Northern Muslims who are presumed to be incapable of objective thought and independent decision-making.

Equally insulting - to you personally - is the presumption by that childish, selfish, suspicious and ominous advice that you are not Muslim enough and need a Northern Muslim for Muslims to feel represented in your own presidential ticket. 

As if that is not demeaning enough for your towering personality, that advice presupposes that you lack the clout and capability to win the Presidency and can only win on the tailcoat of your Muslim running mate. I feel that particular insult for you.

I don't want to speak of the conspiracy theory of people who, like in 2015, thought they could play God - with their expectation that Gen Muhammadu Buhari would die paving way for his vice president to succeed him before the end of his tenure. Apparently, their reason for supporting Buhari in 2015.

Just as Buhari did not die contrary to their expectation, should you win the Presidency, you will not die before the end of your tenure. That is my prayer for you, but it is not the prayer of those who advised you to pick a Muslim as running mate. They cannot contemplate your being succeeded in office by a Christian under any circumstance. 

That is the crux of the matter and not any fantasy of a Muslim running mate bringing votes of all Northern Muslims to your ticket.

I also have another concern, which I have expressed in an SMS I sent to your two numbers yesterday. I reproduce the text message below, in case you have been too busy to read and reply it:

"Sir, as an APC member with structures everywhere in Nigeria, I have to say that your choice of Shettima as running mate has not gone down well with most Nigerians - including Muslims. Today's reality is that terrorism plaguing Nigeria is essentially Islamic, which makes Muslim-Muslim ticket too alarming."

Insecurity and corruption are twins that have all but destroyed Nigeria since 1999. It would be both irresponsible and foolish of the Nigerian electorate - Christians, Muslims and others - to vote for a ticket that has remotest link with terrorists. Can any Nigerian swear that Shettima has no link with terrorists operating in Nigeria?

I am in APC for us to win 2023. I would have preferred a South-Easterner on the presidential ballot for APC, but I am supporting you because it was not your fault that most South-Easterners in APC (particularly our leaders) were too timid, naive, selfish or treacherous for the South-East to win the ticket. I did my best for them; they failed themselves and not me.

But your romance with Muslim-Muslim ticket is in real danger of costing us 2023 Presidency. Do not let anyone deceive you and do not deceive yourself either.

To you and others who often refer to 1993, I must reiterate that 1993 and 2023 are entirely different scenarios. Besides, Muslim-Muslim ticket did not win the Presidency in 1993. It failed precisely because Abiola had rejected recommendation of a Christian running mate made by Ibrahim Babangida and others. 

Arthur Nzeribe's court order, obtained primarily to prove to Abiola that he was wrong to say that he didn't need the Igbo to win, also served as legal basis for Government stoppage of that inconclusive election. May that 1993 history not repeat itself in 2023.

Sir, endeavour to replace Shettima with a Christian from the North when you still can do that, for APC to stand any chance of retaining presidential power after President Buhari's administration terminates on 29th May 2023. Indeed, for APC to survive beyond 2023. If we lose 2023 Presidency, do you see continuation of our party? I don't.

Regards,

Chinedu Jideofo-Ogbuagu,

Convener/National Coordinator, South-East APC Integrity Group and South-East APC Presidency Project 2023.

Later: 2023 APC Presidential Aspirant.

Contact: 09052910866.