2023 Election: Nigerians Too Hungry To Be Bothered About Candidates’ Faith- Keyamo

The Spokesperson for the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, said Nigerians are not bothered about the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket.

He said  Nigerians are too “hungry” to be swayed by their religious faiths in the choice they will make in the forthcoming general elections.

Keyamo said this during an interview on Channels Television on Sunday.

Over the past few months, varied reactions have trailed the decision of the APC and Bola Tinubu, the party’s flagbearer who is a Muslim, to pick a Muslim politician – Kashim Shettima — as a running mate.

Many Nigerians, including the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), have condemned the APC Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket.

Despite the kicks from groups, organisations, and persons of Christian faith, the ruling party has not backed down on promoting the ticket, insisting that it is the best for Nigerians.

Speaking on the opposition to the ticket, the minister said CAN and PFN are not members of the APC and that they should not criticise the party, publicly.

Asked to discuss the APC’s campaign issues for the 2023 elections, Keyamo said the party will highlight the performances of Tinubu during his administration as Lagos governor.

The minister said the party will inform Nigerians how Tinubu will improve the country based on how his track record in the management of Lagos

“These are the kind of questions we want to see, the issues will want to remain on not Muslim-Muslim ticket. We have issues upon issues we want to talk about,” he said.
“Nigerians are hungry, they want to see how that hunger will be addressed, not how their Christian or Muslim faiths will be addressed.

“They want to see our policies on agriculture and what Asiwaju has done before as governor of Lagos state, how he improved Lagos and how he will bring that kind of dexterity to Nigeria as a whole.

“That is what they want to see. How do we want to run the country? What do we want to tell Nigerians?

“They are two crucial things we want to tell Nigerians. One is the person of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and what he has done before in the territory that is set to be the microcosm of Nigeria.

“There is nowhere within the Federal Republic of Nigeria that has the character and the shape of the entire country as much as Lagos.

“Lagos is a melting pot for the entire tribe, tongues and faiths in Nigeria. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu either as governor first till 2007 and as leader of the party since 2007 now, has managed all the multi-facet problems in Lagos state either tribe, religion, and ethnicity in such a way that there has been peace in Lagos state. The peace that we take for guaranteed.”