The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Friday challenged the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to find a solution to its crisis and stayed away from discussions on the Muslim-Muslim ticket, IgbereTV reports
The APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, made the call on a Channels Television programme, Politics Today.
The party’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, picked the former Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, as running mate for the 2023 presidential election on July 10.
Tinubu’s choice had attracted backlash within and outside the party, with many demanding the replacement of Shettima with a Northern Christian.
The PDP is also enmeshed in its own crisis with the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, at loggerheads with the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, since the conclusion of the presidential primary on May 28.
Morka also urged Nigerians to pay attention to PDP’s decision to pick a Northerner as its presidential candidate despite demands for zoning of the presidency to the South.
He added that APC chose a Southerner as its presidential candidate in order to maintain peace and unity in the country.
The spokesman said: “I think we all need to pay a little attention to what is going on in the opposition side. That party – PDP – is crippled completely by their own internal crisis. That is where the attention should be.
“They are the ones who have short changed our idea of rotation and power balancing between the north and the south. They took their presidential candidate from the north. We took it to the south because our party believes in fairness.
“We have a president who is from the north of the country and we thought for good reasons – to balance up the need for peace, unity and inclusiveness in this country that we cede our presidency to the south.
“We have done that but the PDP did the exact opposite to go north. Those who does not want to actually face the truth would rather discuss whether is about Muslim-Muslim ticket or other things to distract from the fundamental breach of their own constitution.
“They are the only party that entrenched the principle of rotation in their constitution but in flagrant breach of that principle they pushed the presidency to the north. It is up to Nigerians to decide whether the need for unity is sufficient to actually reject the call by that party to be voted into office come next year