Fashola ruled out as vice presidential candidate of APC

The Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola
(SAN), has been ruled out as a running mate to the
presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress
anytime the candidate emerges, investigation by The
PUNCH has revealed.
A highly placed source in the party, who spoke with our
correspondent on condition of anonymity in Abuja on
Sunday, said that Fashola's religion had ruled him out
of the race.
He said since it was almost certain that the party would
field a Muslim as its presidential candidate, it would
therefore be out of place to field another Muslim as the
running mate.
Apart from a former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu
Buhari (retd.), the party also has three other known
presidential aspirants.
They are a former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku
Abubakar; Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwakwanso;
and a newspaper publisher, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah.
Out of them, only Nda-Isaiah is a Christian.
The source said that though Fashola remained the best
candidate for the position, he however regretted that
the issue of religion would deny the party and the
country the chance of fielding the governor.
He said, "You know that the South-West is a base for the
APC and it also contributed immensely to its formation.
We would have preferred Fashola because of his
pedigree in the state. Moreover, of all the APC
governors from the zone, he is the only one doing his
second term.
"But this issue of religion is the problem. Apart from
this, other APC governors from the zone are also
Muslims. You may need to recall that the enemies of
our party tried in vain before to label the party a
Muslim party.
"Even though they have failed, we may also need to be
guided by the words of advice from former President
Olusegun Obasanjo against any party fielding same
religion ticket. This is what is hampering us concerning
Fashola, whose performance and competence cannot
be queried."
The source said that even though the national
leadership of the party was aware that the people of
the "South-West are not religious but we are dealing
with a larger society now. So, we must be careful."