The Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has been ruled out as a running mate to the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress anytime the candidate emerges, investigation by The PUNCH has revealed.

A highly placed source in the party, who spoke with our correspondent on condition of anonymity in Abuja on Sunday, said that Fashola’s religion had ruled him out of the race.
He said since it was almost certain that the party would field a Muslim as its presidential candidate, it would therefore be out of place to field another Muslim as the running mate.

Apart from a former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), the party also has three other known presidential aspirants.
They are a former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwakwanso; and a newspaper publisher, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah.

Out of them, only Nda-Isaiah is a Christian.

The source said that though Fashola remained the best candidate for the position, he however regretted that the issue of religion would deny the party and the country the chance of fielding the governor.
He said, “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.
“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.”

The source said that even though the national leadership of the party was aware that the people of the “South-West are not religious but we are dealing with a larger society now. So, we must be careful.”

Caseless:
Jst out ignorance, we've applied religion wrongly as a people. I think if we trully understand religion and what is stands for and what it preaches, it shouldn't deny us good men like fashola and Buhari as VP and president respectively.
See wetin religion don do us abeg...

figment232:
Apc shld field fashola as their presidential candidate.He is only one that can outwit Jona

BiHung:
If you don't present fashola as your VP you will lose gallantly.. Ode

If people won't vote fashola out of religious sentiment...they would also not vote another guy (especially fayemi) out of corruption sentiment... Whichever way, there would always be sentiment anyway..but one thing I know is that when the man there is a known performer...nobody cares about religion.

What have the Muslims gained from sambo being a Muslim? Would it have made any difference if he was a Christian and David Mark a Muslim?

cktheluckyman:
So there are no competent Christians in the APC abi?

Caseless:
Jst out ignorance, we've applied religion wrongly as a people. I think if we trully understand religion and what is stands for and what it preaches, it shouldn't deny us good men like fashola and Buhari as VP and president respectively.
See wetin religion don do us abeg...

malele:
U people are myopic,whaat did this fashola do in LAg.

malele:


U people are myopic,whaat did this fashola do in LAg.

brownlords:
"He said since it was almost certain that the party would field a Muslim as its presidential candidate, it would therefore be out of place to field another Muslim as the running mate.
Apart from a former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), the party also has three other known presidential aspirants."

I hope obiageli can explain this.

I thought Okorocha is one them? he's name was not even mentioned, even Nda Isiah christian from the North, a party that is planning primary election already knows the religion that will likely get the ticket. Yet madame obiageli said the ticket was not zoned, maybe it was roamed to the north

egift:


Tell us your State Governor, let us see if he is better or as good as Fashola? Mine is Chime and am happy with what he has done.

malele:


U people are myopic,whaat did this fashola do in LAg.

“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.”

malele:


U people are myopic,whaat did this fashola do in LAg.

gists:


My brother, I am tempted to agree with you on the bolded. But I also have a general opinion that on its own, religion is not the problem of Nigeria (or indeed of the world) but the HUMAN INTERPRETATION OF THE MESSAGE OF THE VARIOUS RELIGIONS. Most religious texts for any faith can be turned on its head to suit the purpose of the very powerful human minds.

In this particular case, I believe PDP antics deprive the nation probably the best possible combination. A party that has nothing TANgible thing to campaign on and in its desperation and devilish wisdom decided to cause acrimony among the people in order to stay in power by hammer on the nation's fault line (as if pdp is a christian party and if so let the majority muslim north cast their votes for apc)