A former Minister of Aviation, who is also a member of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has warned the leadership of the APC against fielding Muslims as both its presidential and vice-presidential candidates in the 2015 elections, saying doing so would make the party lose the poll.
Fani-Kayode, in a statement made available to our correspondent in Abuja on Monday, said an all Muslims ticket would offend the Christian community in the country.
He said, “I have said it privately in countless political meetings and I will say it publicly today.
“Please mark it, the biggest mistake that my party, the APC, can make is to field a Muslim/Muslim ticket in the 2015 Presidential election.
“If we do that we will not only offend the Christian community but we will also lose the election woefully.”
He said it would be wrong for the APC to think that what happened in 1993, when the winner of the June 12 presidential poll Chief Moshood Abiola, who was a Muslim, paired with Amb. Babagana Kingibe, another Muslim on the ticket of the defunct Social Democratic Party.
Fanikayode, who recently defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the APC, said it would also be wrong to present a Christian/Christian ticket.
He said, “This is not 1993 and whether we like it or not we must accept the fact that religion plays a major role in our politics today.
“Our party must have both a Christian and a Muslim on the ticket if we want to be taken seriously in the presidential election. I implore those that think otherwise to sit down and think this through properly.
“We must not present a Christian/Christian ticket as this would be insensitive to the feelings of Muslims and we must not present a Muslim/Muslim ticket as this would be insensitive to the feelings of Christians.”
He said the country belonged to both Muslims and Christians and that the feelings of the practitioners of both religions must be taken into consideration.
The former minister, who also served as an aide to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, said, “Let us be mindful of our actions, deeds and words, no matter how well-intentioned they may be, and let us ensure that we do not confirm the terrible stereotyping that those that are against us are trying to label us with.”