Northern Christians, PFN caution against Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket in 2023

Groups move to woo APC’s Olawepo-Hashim into race
The Northern States Christian Elders Forum (NOSCEF) has cautioned political parties in the country against fielding Muslim-Muslim ticket in the 2023 presidential election.

It described the contemplation of fielding a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the presidency in the 2023 general elections, as ‘insensitive and selfish’ saying any attempt to foist a Muslim-Muslim ticket on Nigerians will be highly resisted.

In a statement issued by Chairman of NOSCEF, Ejoga Oyinehi Inalegwu in Kaduna, yesterday, it said: “We read with concern, the purported meeting of a frontline politician with some Northern Elders, in which the participants advocated a Muslim-Muslim ticket. Curiously, the report has not been refuted and we wonder the Northern elders, who attended the meeting.

“We recall the M.K.O. Abiola and Babagana Kingibe ticket that won the 1993 presidential election. Majority of Nigerians voted for that ticket because it was meant to address fairness, equity, justice and power rotation between the North and South, South East and North East.”

He also argued that during the previous elections, Shehu Shagari from the North West and Alex Ekwueme (South East) ruled Nigeria and as such, the Abiola-Kingibe ticket meant power shift between the North and South

“Remember that there was no other alternative since the country operated a two party system. Therefore, the injustice, inequity and marginalisation that Nigerians fought against, should not be encouraged by voting Muslim-Muslim or Christian-Christian ticket,” the statement reads.

ALSO, the Kaduna Integrity Group and five other groups have perfected arrangements to woo Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim of the All Progressives Congress (APC) into the 2023 presidential race in 2023, insisting that he was capable of unifying the country.

In a communiqué released after their meeting and read by Samaila Gari and Florence Johnson, the groups said with a Muslim father from a revered family in the North and a Christian mother from the South West and robust contacts from across the country, Olawepo-Hashim should succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.

MEANWHILE, the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has also warned political parties against foisting a Muslim-Muslim ticket on the country in 2023, insisting that any political arrangement short of producing a Christian president would be resisted.

PFN President, Bishop Francis Wale Oke, gave the warning during the grand finale of Zoe Worship Extravaganza in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Oke, who stated this at the event organised by The Sword of the Spirit Ministries, where Bola Are, Pastors Dunsin Oyekan and Yomi Ajayi ministered in songs of worship, described those behind a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket in 2023 as ‘evil and selfish’.