Kaduna State governorship candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, has said he had feared that the APC will be more convincing in its approach toward retaining power after years of failure, but ended up making matters worse for itself by opting for Muslim-Muslim ticket.
Hunkuyi who stated this while speaking with journalists at his Kaduna residence, said the ruling APC has done a lot of damage to the country, and that disrespecting the nation's diversity, will only make its loss in the next year's election, much more easier.
He said, "For me, I recognise the cosmopolitan nature of Nigeria and Kaduna State. So I won’t do that," he said while speaking on the same faith ticket.
"In anycase, I want APC to loose election and the Muslim-Muslim ticket is the sure way to loose election, and this Religious fanatism will not sail through in 2023”, he added.
Meanwhile, former Secretary-General of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Anthony Sani, has said the failure of the Buhari’s government will not determine Tinubu's fate in next year's presidential election.
He said despite the many challenges facing the country, the Buhari administration actually did try their best.
"While I share the view that Buhari regime could do better than what has happened, I am not sure the government has done that poorly, considering the myriad of challenges the regime inherited amid paucity of funds.
"I believe if people do some trend analyses of its performance, using facts check as well as cross analyses of some peer countries, they will find out that this regime has tried by way of performance despite some of its shortcomings. After all, a pass mark is a range and not a single mark," he said.
On the ruling party’s same faith ticket, he said the country has been heavily polarized, which will make it difficult for Tinubu to win the next election.
"My position against the Muslim-Muslim ticket is not so much about the electability as to the aftermath of managing the victory. This is because the ruling party can prevail with any combination of its ticket.
"Because politics of identity has supplanted politics of issues and has brought about mistrust and suspicion which tend to promote cleavages of the nation along ethnic, religious and regional lines, some notable Nigerians who do not wish the ruling party well have alleged Islamisation, which has made the party’s flag bearer promised to unite the nation.
"The Muslim-Muslim ticket has provided such people with more ammunition against the party, which means the party has to work much harder with a Muslim-Muslim ticket to unite the nation than if it was with a Muslim-Christian ticket."