The Forum of Christian and Muslim Political Leaders from the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has adopted the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar as its consensus candidate for the 2023 election.

The leader of the group and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, had earlier adopted the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi.

But the group which has former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, as the arrowhead, kicked against Obi’s choice.

Arising from its meeting held at the Atiku Abubakar Hall of Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja on Friday, the Forum adopted the PDP presidential candidate.

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The Forum in a communique signed on Friday by Prof. Doknan DD Sheni and former Minister of Water Resources, Mukhtar Shehu Shagari hinged its decision on four planks:

One, that the PDP presidential ticket is representative of our religious diversity as a people.

Two, that the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar is the only candidate among the candidates of the four leading political parties that has the knowledge and experience of managing the country at the presidential level. This gives him the advantage to set the ball rolling from day one.

Three, that the PDP presidential candidate has a track record of working harmoniously with all classes of people across religious and ethnic divides.

And fourth, that the PDP presidential candidate is a well-known talent hunter who has demonstrated capacity to hunt highly experienced talents across different sectors and bring them into government. This country needs highly talented people at this critical time to pull the country out of the doldrums and bring it back to the path of stability, security and prosperity.

“The Forum therefore adopts the PDP and the Atiku/Okowa Presidential ticket as the right ticket to support in the 2023 presidential elections, as it addresses all the concerns of inclusiveness, fairness and national cohesion.

“The Forum recommends for support the Atiku Abubakar/Ifeanyi Okowa presidential ticket to all well-meaning Nigerians across the ethnic, sectional and religious diversities, in order to foster unity, peace, development and progress,” the communique stated.

The Forum explained that it didn’t consider Bola Tinubu of the APC on account that the ruling party “has fielded the same faith (Muslim-Muslim) ticket which excludes a large demography of Christians who do not feel represented by the ticket. The APC presidential ticket does not promote inclusiveness, unity, religious harmony and cohesion. A large population of Muslims have also expressed reservations to this ticket and have called for fairness and inclusivity.”

It also called for the rejection of APC. “Consequently, this ticket is outrightly rejected by the Forum and the Forum hereby calls on all lovers of democracy, peaceful coexistence, unity and religious harmony to reject the ticket in its entirety,” it said.

The Forum said the NNPP and LP do not have the required structures to win the presidential election and “even if they win, they cannot be able to smoothly run the government as they will not have the required parliamentary majority to successfully pilot the affairs of government.”

The Star