Senate Chief Whip, Orji Uzor Kalu said the only way the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, would win the 2023 presidential election is to field a Muslim running mate.
Orji Uzor Kalu and Tinubu
The senator, who addressed journalists at the National Assembly on Wednesday, insisted that there was nothing wrong with the Muslim-Muslim ticket since it’s the only option for Tinubu.
Uzor-Kalu further told Christians that there was nothing to fear as Tinubu’s wife is a pastor who would always have the interest of the people at heart.
He said, “If I am in Ahmed Bola Tinubu’s position, the wife is a Pastor in a Pentecostal Church. I will go for a Muslim-Muslim ticket. The most important thing is for the party to win. We should stop this rubbish about religion.
“Whether you put a Christian there, after all, if we win, already the wife is a Pastor and they have been living together for over 40 years. These are facts. So, don’t blame anyone, Tinubu’s wife is already like a deputy president. I am saying my opinion. I am a Catholic. This is Orji Kalu’s opinion. You cannot deny me my opinion.
“But you can also play Christian Christian tickets depending on the scenario. Because if we don’t play the Muslim Muslim ticket, we are in trouble, and it will be difficult to win the election because the only thing left for Ahmed Tinubu today is to play a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
“I know the Church I go to, the Catholic secretary may not be happy about this but what is wrong with Muslim-Muslim ticket? I don’t see anything wrong with it. There is nothing wrong with a Christian-Christian ticket, it depends on the condition. The condition we found ourselves in today is that you cannot play two minorities.
“Tinubu is a minority Muslim from the South, if you put a minority from the North, the minority can’t get it. It is difficult. What I am telling you is the position of mine, it is not the position of my party. This is the Orji Kalu position.”
“Let me tell you, in my house, my wife is the head of the house in reality. Even you men that are here, now that your wives aren’t here, they are the head. Like if I wear this clothe, my wife will tell me ‘My dear, this clothe is not good remove it’. Your wife will tell you you are supposed to eat Akara and Akamu, whether you argue with her, you must take that Akamu and your wife want you to pay children’s school fees, whether you argue or not, you must pay.
“The Christians should relax because Tinubu’s wife is a pastor and once she’s a pastor we are protected because she’s not a housewife. She has political knowledge,” he added.
KanyiDaily recalls that the Christian Association of Nigeria had warned political parties against presenting presidential running mates of the same religion as them.