Barely four weeks to the 2023 presidential election, a former chieftain of the All Progressives Congress and Director of Civil Society in the Presidential Campaign Council of the party, Hajiya Naja’atu Muhammad, has regretted the party’s decision to pick Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu ahead of the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), as its candidate for the election.
Muhammad, popularly known as Hajia Naja, recently retired from politics and resigned her position from the APC PCC.
She disclosed her position on the election in an interview with newsmen over the weekend.
She said she would have put her life on the line for Osinbajo if the ticket was given to him.
According to the Kano State-born politician: “If you had given me Osinbajo, I swear I would have put my life on the line for Osinbajo because he is a better person, he’s open, he’s proactive and he puts his eye on the ball and looks at Nigeria holistically.”
Extolling the leadership qualities of the Vice President as the basis of her choice, Hajiya Muhammad said: “The few months that he (Osinbajo) was given the opportunity to act, he changed things.
“So why should I be sentimental?”
Muhammad decried the decision of some leaders of the party and the South West to support Tinubu instead of Osinbajo, noting: “Nigeria has become the personal property of some elites.
“If the Yorubas were serious, why not give it to Osinbajo, who is a pastor?
“You are doing Muslim-Muslim.
“The holy prophet said a just atheist is better than an unjust Muslim.
“So, why do I care about Muslim-Muslim?
“But they are busy not only galvanising the polity, but deceiving people.
“How Islamic are they?
“Somebody that could not even read Fatiha is calling himself a Muslim.
“Without Fatiha you can’t pray.
“Which means he has never prayed.
“What nonsense is that?”
Hajiya Muhammad spoke about her admiration of Osinbajo’s disposition to politics and governance.
She said: “If you remove tribal sentiment, if you remove the Lagos/Ibadan press, if Tinubu were not a Yoruba man, he will not dare contest election because they will crucify him, but people are all there to defend him because he is Yoruba.
“It’s egbe omo Oduduwa over everything else.
“I was in the campaign for Yola, and we had to beg them to take the mic from him.
“Everything about Tinubu is based on lies.
“Imagine he is an Hausa man, will he contest elections with all these gbese (debt) on top of him?
“In this campaign, nobody should talk of corruption because they are corruption personified.”
Muhammad said besides Osinbajo, Peter Obi of the Labour Party would have been another good choice, but blamed his (Obi’s) inexperience and lack of structure among others as factors that will work against.
The political and civil rights activist said she could no longer continue with the struggle for a better Nigeria on the platform of the proposed Tinubu presidency.
It will be recalled that Muhammad’s resignation letter, addressed to the APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, cited “recent developments in the political and democratic space” as reasons for her decision to quit the party and campaign Council.
She stated: “The challenges facing the country today require me to continue championing the struggle for a better country with a clear conscience as I remain absolutely loyal to Nigeria.”
She added that the problems required “the consolidated efforts of competent and patriotic leadership across every level of governance”.