Some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the region’s North East and North Central have urged the party’s NWC to replace Kashim Shettima with a Christian.
The stakeholders also requested that NWC reconsider Governor Simon Lalong’s selection as the campaign’s Director-General.
During a meeting held in Abuja on Monday, the coalition made its request, urging the party to end the standoff that has persisted since it proposed a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket.
Dauda Yakubu, the group’s secretary general, expressed concern about the consequences of a presidential ticket from the same faith for the party.
He urged the party to end the stalemate caused by the Muslim-Muslim ticket in order to prevent an outright rejection in 2023.
We demand that the APC take the necessary actions to ensure that Shettima is replaced by a prominent Christian party member.
“The leadership of the APC must use the opportunity presented by the publication of INEC‘s final list of presidential candidates on September 20 to swiftly repair the mistake and deliver the party’s vice presidential ticket to a Christian to appease the concerns of those still aggrieved.
The Christian population in Nigeria must not feel that the party is treating them with disdain. Vote losses on an unprecedented scale would follow.‘’
Further, the APC’s leadership needs to be aware that other political parties have chosen Muslim-Christian tickets, and that the APC should not be an exception.
A Muslim running alongside another Muslim on the ticket is a surefire recipe for disaster for the party. We, the undersigned, are writing to the party’s leadership to request that they alter the candidates running for president on the party’s ticket.