Tinubu is 70-years-old and might want a younger running mate. Yahaya Bello is 47. But the albatross is that they are both Muslims. CAN has already warned against a Muslim/Muslim ticket
By Ishaya Ibrahim
A closed-door meeting between the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State is currently underway.
Recall that Tinubu won the APC presidential primary with a landslide of 1,271 votes in a contest that the Kogi State Governor who was also an aspirant described as highly compromised.
The 47-year-old Yahaya Bello scored 47 votes. His state came to the convention with 63 delegates and not all of them voted for him.
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Tinubu has now reached out to Yahaya Bello in what might appear as a reconciliatory move to pacify the aggrieved aspirant. Others think that the meeting might not be unconnected with his search for a running mate. The deadline the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) gave all the presidential candidates to submit the names of their running mates is June 17.
Tinubu was accompanied to the meeting with Yahaya Bello by Governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos); Bello Matawalle (Zamfara); and Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano).
A former governor of Edo State and former national chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, is also in the entourage.
Meanwhile has said in a statement that any party to foist a Muslim/Muslim ticket on Nigeria will be rejected.
The statement reads in part: “Any party that tries same religion ticket will fail. This is not 1993. Even when we have a joint Muslim/Christian ticket, the church still goes through hell. Only God knows the number of Christians that have been killed in the last seven years with no one apprehended or prosecuted. Imagine how bad it will be if we have two Muslims in power? The extant Nigerian Constitution promotes religious balance.”