Wali: Blame Buhari, Not Tinubu for APC Muslim-Muslim Ticket

* Says president failed to live up to his leadership role  

* Dismisses fear Wike may leave, sabotage party, gives reasons

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

A former Minister of Foreign Affairs and founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Aminu Wali, has asked Nigerians to blame President Muhammadu Buhari for not putting his foot down on the controversial choice of a Muslim-Muslim ticket by the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Wali, in an interview with the Sun Newspaper, argued that only Buhari could have stopped the decision by the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, maintaining that when it comes to the issue of religion, the president has not been very transparent.

While noting that, Buhari failed to live up to his expectation as the leader of the country by allowing the anomaly, Wali stated that the president should have impressed it on Tinubu to pick a Christian as his running mate.

However, the former minister stated that there were really no surprises in the president’s inability to take any action concerning the controversy, pointing out that in matters of faith, the president has been less than accountable in the last seven years.
“It is very, very unfortunate that this thing is taking a bigger dimension under the APC because whatever problem that we now have, it is being exasperated by the seven years or so of the APC. We were not like this before.

“But it is because Buhari has not done what he was supposed to do as the leader of this country, which is to be transparently liberal as far as religion is concerned. He is not. He has never been liberal about religion,” he stated.

“Unfortunately,  Buhari has 80 per cent of the blame in what is happening today. He should have had the courage to be the leader of the APC and say , yes Bola, we have gone to the convention, yes, this is the person that won, but you go and bring a Christian as your running mate.

“After all, when (Umaru) Yar’Adua was elected, Obasanjo called all the aspirants, including Peter Odili, who would have won, he said all of you go and withdraw for Yar’Adua. The man never bought any form. That is what leadership is all about,” he argued.
He explained that as the leader of his party and leader of the country, Buhari should have known the implications of same faith ticket, especially, given his background in the military.

“So, he should have taken a firm decision and say this is what he wants done to avert this from happening. But he did not. And he is the only person in the APC that has that authority and power to enforce the right decision, but he did not,” he added.

But Wali noted that having picked a Christian as the PDP vice-presidential running mate, those that are not satisfied with the Muslim-Muslim ticket in the APC  would be welcomedto support the PDP, noting that, because God loves Nigeria, He would not allow Tinubu win the poll.
The octogenarian also affirmed that it would be difficult for Governor Nyesom Wike, a former presidential aspirant under the party to dump the party, having also benefitted immensely from the PDP.

“Wike belonged to this party way back from the beginning. He became a local government chairman, he became chief of staff, he became a minister of state and he now became a governor, all on the platform of the PDP.

“People who are talking are making it look like it is one easy thing for Wike to wake up one morning and say I quit. That is going to be very difficult for him, because he has his stakes in the PDP.

“Like one of my friends had said, how can you go and take away what you gave to your mother. That is the tight position of Wike. The PDP made him what he is today.

“From a local government chairman to what he is today. So, whatever the people are talking about how he sustained PDP, well that is true. But they should know that your mother cannot give birth to you and then you turn around and say that you cannot take care of her,” he argued.

According to him, Wike was also interested in winning the governorship of Rivers State for his candidate, while his followers had already filled their candidacy on the platform of the PDP.

“Are they going to throw away everything? Is Wike going to sacrifice all of these and all that we have been through with him simply because what happened, happened. In politics, you win and lose.

“What I have gone through in Kano by the grace of the then national leadership of the party, I should have quit, I should have left the party, but that is not the option. I took every kind of humiliation as far as the party was concerned, but I bid my time and today things have changed,” he declared.

Wali maintained that although Wike was dedicated to the party and went out of his way to do whatever it took to assist the party, especially financially, in the process, he created other problems.

He argued that Wike had more or less quarrelled with everybody in the party, adding that his language, his demeanour and the way he approached people would have been the reason a lot of people turned against him.

On the contrary, he stated that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa by his demeanour, was somebody that was peaceful, never controversial and remained a presidential material.

“You will want to have somebody that is peaceful, knowing that there would not be a lot of problems in his absence. I think that this is why he went for Okowa, because I think that generally within the party, both North and South, Okowa has respect from everybody,” he added.

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