Nasir El-Rufai, the Kaduna State Governor, has criticised Nigerians over the fixation on the religious affiliations of presidential candidates and their running mates.
El-Rufai made this call on Friday, June 10, in response to a question about the possibility of the All Progressives Congress fielding a Muslim-Muslim ticket in order to emerge victorious in the 2023 elections.
He said;
We fixate too much on religion instead of capacity and competence and I appeal to the media to quit this narrative ahead of the 2023 polls. We are at a crossroads as a country and we need competent people in the affairs.
The Governor further related how President Muhammadu Buhari refused to dictate how delegates from his state should vote at the All Progressives Congress’ presidential primaries.
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The President had earlier said he had no anointed candidate in an election that was eventually won by Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
El-Rufai said President Buhari told the delegates to “vote their conscience.”
Before I went to address the Kaduna delegates for the last time, I went to the President and asked him, have you decided on who we should vote for? He said I told you, go and vote for any of the five (candidates selected by APC Governors)
I said, Mr President, the Kaduna delegates are your delegates, you are going to retire and live in Kaduna. So you can tell me who you want out of the five, and the President said ‘I want all five’.
I said, what then should I tell Kaduna delegates. He said, tell them to vote their conscience; they are representing 10 million people in Kaduna state. It’s a heavy responsibility, and they should discharge it and pick the best candidate.
Now I don’t know how the Kaduna delegates voted; but the feedback I got after the voting is that most of them voted for Asiwaju, some voted for Amaechi. And some voted for Professor Yemi Osinbajo.
