An elderstàteman and immediate past Secretary-General of the influential Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Anthony Sani has advised the All Progressive Congress (APC) presidential flag bearer Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the leadership of the party to pick a Christian from the North as vice president. This, according to him, is the surest way to peace and unity in view of the pervading realities in the country.
He urged Tinubu not to be intimidated by anyone under any pressure to fall for what can bring disunity and increased suspicion in the country.
According to Sani, the former speaker of the federal house of representatives Hon. Yakubu Dogara fits perfectly into the new consideration.
He said, ” Dogara is a young man with sufficient public intelligence with a rich electoral asset. If you look at his electoral value he has never lost an election”.
Sani stated this in Jos the Plateau state capital yesterday while speaking to newsmen.
He argued that the former speaker was able to command national respect because of his liberal disposition and because of that, given his liberal posture, “I am tempted to recommend him for the position of the vice president of Nigeria”.
“My suggestion does not mean that I have an influence on Tinubu and the leadership of APC, but Tinubu has earlier said he knows how to hunt for his first eleven, and as far as I am concerned Dogara can make his first eleven.”
Sani also wondered why the controversy on whether he should pick a Christian northerner or a Muslim adding that the constitution is very clear on it in respect to the federal character which says “No any group should dominate as such a thing will not promote the unity of the country.”
“As far as Nigeria is concerned the dividing lines today are about three, ethnicity, religion, and regions and there is no way the president can pick his running mate from his region.
He further stressed “So if there are three dividing lines, for instance, if the president comes from a region, the vice president from the other side. If the president is coming from the south, naturally the vice president should come from the North.”
He argued that because religion is also part of the three dividing lines, the constitution expects that the vice president should come from the opposite of the president’s religion.
“Some people have been saying, it should not happen that way, but the country today is being divided along the ethnic, region, and religious lines. So there is no way Tinubu will pick his vice from the south or northern Muslim as vice president.
According to him, Tinubu has made it very clear that he is coming to unite the country and not to divide it and if people are talking of Muslim, Muslim ticket he wonders if you they are mindful of the federal character
“With the way I perceive Tinubu, he wants to unite the country so that it will be peaceful for the younger generation to inherit, he is not expecting Tinubu to pick a Muslim from the North as his running mate,” he said.
