Fashola Has Been Ruled Out As APC Vice Presidential
Candidate
The Lagos State Governor, Babatunde
Fashola, has been ruled out as a running mate to whoever emerges as the
presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress at the convention in
December.
A highly placed source in the party,
who spoke with Punch on the matter, said that Fashola’s religion, even though
he is considered a performer, had ruled him out of the race for the vice
presidential slot.
He said, “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.
“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 said since it was almost certain
that the party would field a Muslim as its presidential candidate, it would
therefore be out of place to field another Muslim [Babatunde Fashola] as
the running mate.
Apart from General Muhammadu Buhari,
the party also has three other known presidential aspirants.
They are a former VP Alhaji Atiku
Abubakar; Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwakwanso; and a newspaper publisher,
Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah.
Out of them, only Nda-Isaiah is a
Christian.
The source said that though Fashola
remained the best candidate for the position, he however regretted that the
issue of religion would deny the party and the country the chance of fielding
the governor.
“South-West are not religious but we
are dealing with a larger society now. So, we must be careful.”
