Orji Kalu says APC needs Muslim-Muslim ticket to win 2023 presidential election

Kalu said the ruling party needs to present a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket to win the forthcoming election.

According to him, the APC may lose the election if it fails to go for a Northern Muslim Vice Presidential candidate as a running mate to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a muslim southerner, who is the party’s flagbearer for the 2023 election.

Kalu said this on Wednesday, June 15, 2022, during an interview with journalists at the National Assembly complex in Abuja.

He said, “If we don’t play Muslim-Muslim (ticket), we are in trouble,” he stated. “It will be difficult to win the election because the only thing left for Ahmed Tinubu today is to play Muslim-Muslim.

“What is wrong with Muslim-Muslim ticket? I don’t see anything wrong. There is nothing wrong with a Christian-Christian ticket also, it depends on the condition.

“The condition that we have found ourselves today is that you cannot play two minorities — Tinubu is a minority Muslim from the South and if you put a Christian from the North, it is a minority Christian from the North. What I am telling you is sincerely from my mind; it is not the position of our party.”

Kalu maintained that there was nothing wrong if the APC decides to field a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the election.

He added that a southern minority Muslim and a northern minority Christian cannot win a presidential election in Nigeria.

The lawmaker further said the APC is not interested in the religious and ethnic affiliation of its vice presidential candidate, adding that the ruling party’s focus is to win the election.

“If I am in Ahmed Bola Tinubu’s situation — the wife is a senior pastor in a Pentecostal church, I will go (for a) Muslim-Muslim ticket, the most important thing is for the party to win.

“Already the wife is a pastor and they have been living together for over 50 years. She’s already like a deputy president, if I’m to say; I am saying my opinion, this is Orji Kalu’s opinion. You cannot deny me my opinion, but you can also play a Christian-Christian ticket, depending on the scenario,” he said.

Kalu, however, thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for ensuring a level playing ground for all candidates at the party’s presidential primary election.