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.
