After Bola Tinubu’s announcement of Kashim Shettima as his running mate in the 2023 presidential elections in Daura, Katsina State yesterday, Northern Elders have listed three things likely to follow the newest development.
Tweeting via his verified Twitter handle on Monday, the Northern Elders Forum- NEF spokesman, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed wondered if the faiths of political leaders were a necessary factor in how they (the politicians) govern the country.
He noted that the ticket might force Christians to disregard the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 general elections. Hakeem also disclosed that the decision might on the other hand encourage Muslims to aggressively back and vote for the ruling party.
The tweet read:
“Now that Bola Ahmed Tinubu has decided on Muslim-Muslim three things are possible—
1. All Christians will walk away from his ticket.
2. All Muslims will line up behind his ticket.
3. It will not make any difference to his electoral fortunes.
Are the faiths of our leaders that important to how they lead?”
The announcement which came as a sort of wild surprise to huge swaths of citizens in the country given Nigeria’s religious plurality has sparked a lot of debates, most especially on the social media sphere. While several Nigerians have declared the Tinubu-Shettima ticket a failure in 2023, a host of others have applauded the decision, arguing that Nigeria needs to shy away from using religion as the basis for leadership.
