Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu is not speaking for his constituents when backing a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 presidential election.
Kalu, who represents Abia North, had said that there was nothing wrong in the APC presidential flagbearer, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, picking a Northern Muslim as his running mate.
The former Abia governor had explained that it would be politically naive for Tinubu, a minority Muslim from the South-West, to choose a minority Christian from the North as his running mate.
However, Kalu’s constituents rejected his explanation, warning that a Muslim-Muslim ticket would not fly.
Paramount traditional ruler of Abiriba ancient kingdom, HRM Eze Kalu Kalu Ogbu described the senator’s assertion as “strange, unbelievable and illogical”.
He said that Nigeria’s religious diversity did not favour a joint ticket of same religion.
“The ideas is strange. I don’t think he made such advocacy but if he did, he didn’t speak for Abia North, he didn’t speak for Ndigbo because such a comment doesn’t make sense at all. It’s very inappropriate,” Vanguard quoted the monarch as saying.
Another constituent, Dr. Isaac Nkole, said that Kalu was only trying to warm his way back into Tinubu’s heart having previously opposed his presidential ambition.
Nkole, who is a chieftain of PDP, said, “it is very embarrassing for a supposed Senator in Kalu’s ranking to advocate Muslim/Muslim or even Christian/Christian ticket in a religious sensitive and plural state like Nigeria.”
According to him, “religion and ethnicity have unfortunately remained Nigeria’s fault lines which must not be dismissed with a wave of the hand in the interest of peace and national cohesion.”
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