The South West Agenda (SWAGA) 2023 has said the All Progressive Congress APC’s choice of Kashim Shettima as Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s running mate was the masterstroke that had put the Peoples Democratic Party in a panic mode ahead of the 2023 presidential election.
SWAGA National Chairman, Senator Dayo Adeyeye, stated this in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, on Friday during an event to receive hundreds of members of opposition parties in the state into the group.
Adeyeye said the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar has no moral justification to condemn the choice of Shettima as Tinubu’s running mate.
According to him, Atiku supported the Muslim-Muslim ticket in 1993 with his moves to be MKO Abiola’s running mate,
He allayed the fears of the Christian faithful on the Muslim-Muslim ticket noting that Tinubu is a liberal person who will not discriminate against other religions in the country.
He said, “We want everybody to come on board because this is not about a particular party. We have representatives of various political parties in this gathering wanting to work for the victory of Tinubu next year. Let me tell you that if we call these people today APC members, they won’t have been here but we say it is South West Agenda for our principal, and that is the reason you can see the large turnout of people across party lines. That is why we see SWAGA as the vehicle to deliver most of the votes in the southwest.
” Politics is a game of numbers and PDP can’t challenge us from the moral ground because their candidate, Atiku Abubakar believed in that ticket in 1993 as evidence has surfaced and don’t forget some of us were participants then. We knew he wanted to be vice president to MKO Abiola. So, if he was struggling to be on the ticket in 1993, why will he be opposing it now? It was evident he was going to pick Christian South this time because he is a Muslim from the North, and it is easier for him.
“I want to allay the fears of our Christian brother because I am a Christian too and Tinubu is a man who is tolerant of other religions. This is a free-minded person who will not discriminate against anyone. Take it, if Tinubu finds it difficult to Islamize his wife, is that the person that will Islamize the country when the better half is Christian and Pastor?
” I believe Tinubu-Shettima is a winning ticket and PDP is in a panic mode because they know we will have a repeat of history next year, where MKO Abiola won with a landslide, especially in the North. There is a way history repeats itself.”
