Kaduna State Governor Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai has urged Nigerians to look for competence, capacity, capability and delivery rather than the religion of their leaders, saying that is the only way to develop the country.
El-Rufai was speaking on a Channels Television programme in response to a question on the possibility of the All Progressives Congress (APC) fielding a Muslim-Muslim ticket in the 2023 presidential elections.
Dateline Nigeria reports that former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal, had while speaking against the possible fielding of a Muslim-Muslim ticket by the APC, said “I live among the Christians, and I know that among the Christians, the question of Muslim-Muslim ticket is a no-go area; it is dead on arrival.”
Read also: 2023: Any party that tries same religion ticket will fail, CAN says
El-Rufai was specifically asked by Seun Okinbaloye that “The talk about Muslim-Muslim ticket, how do you think this will sit with most Nigerians? Do you think your party can toe that line in today’s Nigeria?”
Responding, the Kaduna State governor said “You are asking the wrong person because I don’t look at people from the lens of Muslim-Muslim or Christian-Christian. Some of my closest friends are Christians. It was Pastor Tunde Bakare, a Pentecostal pastor that took me to the CPC, not President Buhari. So I am very close to Pastor Bakare, I am very close to many Christians.
“I don’t think that the business of governance has to do with religion. I think we should look for the best person for the job, the person that will get the job done and get him to do that.
“I am the wrong person to ask because in my state, I picked a very competent, qualified woman as my running mate in the 2019 elections, but just because she happens to be a Muslim, people were calling it Muslim-Muslim ticket and they said we were going to lose, we didn’t, we won overwhelmingly.
“This fixation of Nigerians with religion instead of competence, capacity and capability is quite sad and pathetic. And I urge you as media to please take religion out of governance and let’s look for competence, capacity, capability and delivery. I don’t think we should be looking at religion, we want to develop this country.
“When I get into a plane, I don’t ask for the religion of the pilot, when I go to hospital I don’t ask for the religion of the doctor. I just want to get well, I want to get to my destination if in an aircraft.
“The way the media and very irresponsible people try to inject religion in politics and governance is sand and pathetic, and it will not take us anywhere. Nigeria is at a crossroad. We face very, very serious dangers in security, in economic meltdown, global issues are affecting us and all people are concerned with as far as who will be president or vice president is concerned is religion. It is so sad. It is not our religion that will solve our problem.”
