Senator Elisha Abbo

Senator representing the Adamawa north senatorial zone under the governing All Progressives Congress APC, Senator Elisha Abbo has defended his decision to quit the campaign organisation of his party’s presidential flagbearer, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, saying he could not defend the Muslim-Muslim ticket option he adopted.  

Recall that Tinubu had Sunday, unveiled former governor of Borno State, Senator Kasshim Shettima, who is also a Muslim as his vice presidential candidate, a development that elicited mixed reactions not only from fellow party members, some of who resigned their membership in protest, but also across other opposition parties and many Nigerians, describing it as insensitive.

Speaking on an Arise TV interview, the Senator, who also disclosed that he would not quit the party at this point in time but stay around to clean the rot, however insists that Tinubu’s decision to go for a Muslim-Muslim joint ticket at this point in the political history of the country even against all warnings, is unjust and devoid of any inclusiveness for other Nigerian Christians.

He also said that the APC has in the last seven years failed to provide good governance for the citizens as typified in Nigeria’s battered economy, unprecedented insecurity with the attendant loss of lives and property as well as polarisation of the citizens along religious and ethnic lines.

Citing the provision of N4trillion for the payment of subsidy in the 2022 national budget, especially at a time the citizens queue at the filling stations to buy petroleum products, wondered which volume of the products that is being subsidised and for who, describing the entire episode as a scam.

According to him, apart from being a violation of the country’s constitution, especially the aspect of which provides for federal character in appointments into all political positions in the country, the Muslim-Muslim option also contravenes some sections of the Koran, which seeks to promote peace and justice among people of other faiths.

He said: “As a Christian, I cannot explain it to my constituency and so, I cannot campaign for Nigerian presidential ticket on a Muslim-Muslim platform because that would mean that no northern Christian is qualified to be a vice president, which is an insult to the sensibility of the Christians and we cannot accept that.

“Secondly, it is also against the provisions of the constitution, the country’s grand norm, as it relates to the federal character principle. How can you be loyal to a government that violates its own laws? In the interest of equity, fairness and justice, we all insisted that power should return to the south after eight years of being in the north and this led to the emergence of Tinubu being a southern Muslim. For him to pick another Muslim from the north suggests that there no credible and qualified Christians in that region, which is untrue, unfair, unjust and therefore unacceptable.

“This decision also violates the basic tenets of the Muslim religion. Chapter 4, section 135 of the Koran states: ‘’Be upholders of justice even if it is against your own interest” Can you tell me that there is any sense of justice in this joint ticket of two Muslims in a secular country like Nigeria?

“President Muhammadu Buhari is a soldier and he understands the importance of promoting national peace, unity and justice. The first three times he contested for the position of the president, he picked his running mates from among southern Christians and in 2015 he turned down the request by Tinubu to be his vice, which gave rise to the emergence of Prof Yemi Osinbajo.”

On the claim by Tinubu that he consulted widely before arriving at the choice of Senator Shettima Senator Abbo said: “There was no consultation anywhere, from the onset, he had made up his mind to run on a Muslim-Muslim ticket and so he was merely buying time, probably reached out to a few people that shared his views on the matter.”

 Also, while reacting to the claim that a northern Christian might not have the needed electoral value to deliver large votes quite unlike the northern Muslim candidate, he questioned rhetorically: “Which political value did Osinbajo bring in 2014 when he contested alongside President Buhari that also gave them victory?”

The Senator therefore insists that Nigeria currently needs a listening and inclusive government that would promote healing among the citizens due to the bad governance of the past seven years of the APC government, saying that the only way forward was for the APC presidential candidate to rescind the nomination of Shettima.

“Nigeria currently needs healing and a Muslim-Muslim ticket would not provide this healing. Without healing, there would not be any justice and without justice, there would be no peace and without peace, there would be no development”, Senator Abbo said emphatically.