Muslim/Muslim Ticket: Tinubu, Atiku On War-Path
• As APC presidential candidate accuses former VP of desperation, lack of character
The Muslim Muslim ticket of the All Progressives Congress may have finally set former vice president and People’s Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar on the warpath with his long-time associate and presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Atiku while fielding questions on Arise TV interview on Friday accused the APC of lack of sensitivity to the religious sensibilities of Nigerians and further claimed that the former Lagos State Governor had always wanted a Muslim Muslim ticket.
Atiku alleged that as the presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress in the 2007 presidential election, his rebuff of Tinubu’s lobby to emerge as his Vice Presidential candidate was the beginning of their political enmity.
But speaking through his media aide, Tunde Rahman, the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Tinubu accused Atiku Abubakar of falsehood.
Also read: Adeleke’s Victory In The Election Saved Me From Palace Eviction – Ataoja Of Osogbo Reveals
Tinubu declared that “in his desperate attempt to win the election by stoking religious bias, Atiku has reduced himself to uttering baseless lies on national television.
“We are saddened to see such a man become unhinged from the truth. So obsessed is he with his quest for office, Atiku is willing to render any form of untruth if he thinks it might gain him a single vote. Atiku may want to be president. However, all he has shown is that he is pathological.”
“Whatever moral compass he had has been lost. During a 22 July television interview, Atiku assaulted historic truth by lying that he did not name Tinubu as his running mate in 2007 on the Action Congress ticket because Atiku did not want a Muslim as his running mate.”
Going down memory lane, Tinubu recalled that Atiku was not among those who founded the Action Congress.
“It was the actual founders of the AC who offered the party’s flag to Atiku because of the need to fight the authoritarian designs then President Obasanjo and the PDP had on Nigeria’s democracy.
“At that moment, Atiku had been unceremoniously pushed aside if not out of the PDP by Obasanjo. We needed to rally all forces to confront the one-party state Obasanjo had in mind. Atiku was simply a beneficiary of this collective duty to fight the attack on multi-party democracy the PDP had launched.
“I feel sorry for dear old Atiku. Love of his own ambition has eclipsed his relationship with the truth and an honest account of the past. We formed the AC without his knowledge. When President Obasanjo virtually exiled him from the PDP, we lent him our support by giving him the AC platform for the 2007 election.
“Let me say openly that Atiku offered me the vice presidential ticket in 2007. Let me also say that my religion has not changed. When he offered the position to me, I was a Muslim and I believe he was aware of my religious faith at the time.”
