The Middle Belt Congress has appealed to former Borno State Governor, Kassim Shettima, to step down as the vice-presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The move, according to the group, will potentially save the party from impending electoral misfortune in 2023.
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The Middle Belt Congress made this appeal on Wednesday at a press conference in Abuja.
In his address, the group’s president, Mohammed Bilal, said the party’s national acceptance had dwindled following Shettima’s nomination.
By picking a fellow Muslim to run alongside Bola Tinubu, Bilal said the APC displayed a religious insensitivity to the plurality of the nation.
“The Muslim-Muslim Ticket of the APC indeed comes with its attendant political baggage. Suppose the APC as a party is desirous of making any meaningful impact in the 2023 presidential elections. In that case, it behoves the party to retrace its steps in the composition of its presidential Ticket.”
Describing Shetimma as a friend of the Christian community in Nigeria, the Middle Belt Congress said it was disappointing that he went ahead to be a part of a Muslim-Muslim ticket in the face of religious and ethnic tension.
“We are constrained to believe that self-confession of Senator Kashim Shettima towards the Christian community might be a ruse as his actions of late does not indicate that of a religiously tolerant individual,” Bilal said.
“It remains a statement that since the nomination of Senator Kashim Shetimma, the APC evolved into a riotous organization with various stakeholders in abhorrence for the choice of a Northern Muslim at the detriment of credible and capable Northern Christians.
“It remains morally unjustifiable for Senator Kashim Shetimma to hold onto the vice presidential slot of the APC because such action has heated the polity in ways too numerous to mention. The incomprehensible fact remains that the leadership of the APC is aware of the threats posed to its electoral success with the Muslim-Muslim Ticket, yet, it has remained adamant about the uproar its choice of Muslim-Muslim ticket has elicited in the polity”.
The group, therefore, appealed to Shetimma to “act in honour by resigning his nomination as the vice presidential candidate of the APC in the interest of peace and tranquillity and to salvage whatever is left of the APC in the buildup to the 2023 presidential elections.”
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