Governor Yahaya Bello has defended the All Progressives Congress (APC) same faith presidential ticket, expressing optimism that Nigerians will be happy with the duo of Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima.
The Kogi State leader’s comment followed the backlash that greeted the party’s unveiling of Shettima, a former governor of Borno State and a Muslim, as Tinubu’s running mate for the 2023 polls.
“Nigerian politicians should be more mature; we should take politics out of it,” he said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily Friday.
“Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu and his Excellency Shettima is a perfect match. When you have a one-on-one with these gentlemen, you will know that we are coming up with a combination that, largely, Nigerians will be happy with.”
The former APC presidential aspirant said despite the outrage that followed the party’s ticket, the duo of Tinubu and Shettima is a “complete departure from what is happening now”.
He told those criticising the party’s same-faith ticket to have a rethink, asking: “who told you that it cannot be Christian-Christian tomorrow?”
Away from politics, the governor noted that he has been monitoring the impasse between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government, a faceoff he blamed on the country’s elites.
Nigerian elites, he argued, are toying with the country’s future, explaining that they “cut across board – both those in government and ASUU themselves”.
Governor Bello criticised those handling the dispute. He said they are unseriousness about Nigeria’s progress, maintaining that the lingering strike would have been resolved if they wanted the nation’s progress.
The APC chieftain sympathised with students and their parents over the protracted industrial action and asked Nigerians to quit playing politics with the country’s future.