The All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential candidate for the 2023 election, Bola Tinubu, has finally settled for Senator Kashim Shettima, a Muslim as his running mate.
Nigeria's Tinubu picks Muslim as running mate for 2023 election
Bola Tinubu, one of the national leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party, ...
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Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, is due to elect a successor in February 2023 to President Muhammadu Buhari, who is not seeking re-election after two consecutive terms.
Electoral tradition dictates that presidential candidates from the predominantly Muslim north choose a vice-president from the predominantly Christian south, and vice versa.
A Muslim candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC) party, Mr Tinubu, a 70-year-old Muslim from the south-west of the country, announced that he had chosen another Muslim from the north as his running mate, in the person of Kashim Shettima, a 63-year-old former governor of Borno State.
A daily post report sighted by Africanews indicates that some stakeholders in the country had warned the former Lagos State Governor against picking a Muslim running mate, as Muslim-Muslim ticket would side-line the Christians.
His main rival, former vice-president Atiku Abubakar, 75, of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), a Muslim from the North, has chosen a Christian from the South, Ifeanyi Okowa, the current governor of Delta State.