A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Elisha Abbo, has withdrawn his support for the party’s presidential candidate and also relinquished his membership of the Bola Tinubu Presidential Campaign Organisation.
Giving his reason for the decision, Abbo said his conscience would not permit him to support Tinubu after he snubbed Christian options to select a Muslim as his running mate.
Tinubu had on Sunday in Daura, Katsina State, announced Kashim Shettima, a Muslim and former Borno State Governor, as his running mate.
Abbo, in a statement on Monday, described the choice of a Muslim VP, as “irresponsible”, stressing that Tinubu dismissed a report submitted to him on a possible Christian running mate.
“It is very irresponsible of Tinubu to take his political survival over the stability and peace of Nigeria.
“For Tinubu now to be given the ticket and turn around to do what he couldn’t achieve in 2015 despite opposition from Catholics and other Christian leaders is extremely irresponsible,” added the chieftain.
He recalled that they sat down in Abuja and strategised, and concluded that Tinubu should not take a Muslim as running mate. “He (Tinubu) threw away the report,” Abbo bemoaned.
Abbo added that as a member of the Christian Association of Nigeria, he is of the opinion that a government of the same faith is “illegitimate”.
He said, “My conscience will not allow me to campaign for Tinubu. I am a member of CAN; I cannot deny CAN. I remain in the APC. But I will take the survival of my country first over political considerations.
“We cannot work for such a man. I will oppose Christian-Christian ticket because I am invested in the stability of this country. A Christian-Christian ticket will be insensitive to Muslims in this country.”
He, however, conceded that the country is evenly divided among Muslims and Christians. Hence, any government that is Muslim-Muslim “will be illegitimate and will never gain the respect of Christians”.