Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola.
The Governor of Lagos, Babatunde Fashola has reportedly been ruled out as a Vice Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) due to the fact that he is a Muslim.
A senior source within the party has said that Fashola’s religion has ruled him out of the race, Punch reports.
The
source added that the governor of Lagos state would be excluded from
consideration due to the fact that the APC is most likely to field a
Muslim as its presidential candidate and thus it would be out of place
to have a VP of the same religion.
“You know
that the South-West is a base for the APC and it also contributed
immensely to its formation. We would have preferred Fashola because of
his pedigree in the state. Moreover, of all the APC governors from the
zone, he is the only one doing his second term. But this issue of
religion is the problem. Apart from this, other APC governors from the
zone are also Muslims. You may need to recall that the enemies of our
party tried in vain before to label the party a Muslim party,” the source said.
“Even
though they have failed, we may also need to be guided by the words of
advice from former President Olusegun Obasanjo against any party
fielding same religion ticket. This is what is hampering us concerning
Fashola, whose performance and competence cannot be queried,” he added.
The
APC has four other presidential aspirants; former Head of State,
Muhammadu Buhari, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, Governor of
Kano State, Rabiu Kwakwanso and newspaper publisher, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah;
three of whom are Muslims.
Speculations
went rife that Fashola could be chosen as Buhari's running mate after
the latter paid a visit to the governor in Lagos. Fashola however denied the reports.
Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo earlier cautioned Nigerian political parties to avoid fielding candidates of the same religion to avoid stoking already high tensions.
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