The Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu (APC Abia North ), has said the only path to victory for the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress ( APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is to pick a Muslim from the North as running mate.
Kalu made the declaration Wednesday at a media chat before plenary.
He said Tinubu, as a Muslim minority from the South, cannot afford to pick a Christian minority from the North.
“Election is about winning the votes where they are. A Muslim from the North will give Tinubu the required votes in the North,” he said.
The former Abia state governor further said Tinubu, being a very liberal minded statesman from the South with an ordained pastor as wife, needed a Muslim from the North for formidable combination.
“Christians should not be agitated about Muslim-Muslim ticket. I am a Catholic and do not see anything wrong with it for the purpose of winning election.
“Do you want me to speak the truth? If I am Bola Ahmed Tinubu whose wife is a senior pastor at a Pentecostal Church, I will go for a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
“The most important thing is for the party to win. We should stop the issue of whether you put a Christian there or not.
“After all if we win, the wife is already a pastor. This is my own opinion, and you cannot deny me my opinion,” he stressed.
Kalu also told newsmen that a party could also play Christian-Christian ticket, depending on the scenario.
He emphasised that it would be almost difficult for the APC to win the election in 2023 if Tinubu does not fly Muslim-Muslim ticket, pointing out that his submissions were not those of the APC, but those of Orji Kalu.
“I sit with Tinubu’s wife in the Senate and the wife is a pastor and I have known Tinubu for long and he is a man who can do the work. Tinubu is not a man who preaches Islam or Christianity.
“He is a man who goes with everybody and can do the work, I know that most Christians will be hurt with what I am saying, but picking a Muslim or a Christian will not make him the best president,” he added.
