{"id":96969,"date":"2023-10-05T21:06:22","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T20:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/why-i-rejected-tinubu-as-my-running-mate-atiku-opens-up"},"modified":"2023-10-06T00:04:07","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T23:04:07","slug":"why-i-rejected-tinubu-as-my-running-mate-atiku-opens-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/why-i-rejected-tinubu-as-my-running-mate-atiku-opens-up","title":{"rendered":"Why I rejected Tinubu as my running mate \u2013 Atiku opens up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election, Atiku Abubakar, has claimed he rejected the chance to be running mate to President Bola Tinubu.<\/p>\n

Atiku also insisted he never betrayed Tinubu during their political alignment in 2007.<\/p>\n

According to him, instead, he stood up to his then-principal, President Olusegun Obasanjo, to make sure Lagos State did not fall to the political tsunami of 2003.<\/p>\n

Atiku then revealed he and Tinubu parted ways politically after the former Lagos State governor wanted to be his running mate in 2007.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cI beg to disagree (on betrayal allegation) with Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Yes, it is true that in 2007, we came together to form an alliance in Lagos, and at the convention, I contested and got the ticket. After I got the ticket, he sent about 5 or 6 seniors \u2013 some of them are here \u2013 I can even name them, but I don\u2019t want to embarrass them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey met me and said to me that Bola wanted to be my running mate. I said to them, gentlemen, you\u2019re all old enough, and apparently, virtually all of you are Christians\u2019 with the exception of one person. What will be your reaction to having a Muslim-Muslim ticket?<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of them said we totally objected to it and I said why didn\u2019t you tell him when he was giving you the message that look Mr Tinubu, the message you\u2019re sending us, we don\u2019t seem to agree with you on it (Muslim-Muslim ticket). Why are you coming then to me? And that was the end of our political relationship. We broke away, so what is the ground for him to say that I betrayed him?<\/p>\n

\u201cTill today, I won\u2019t do a Muslim-Muslim ticket; I don\u2019t have to be president; we are a multi-ethnic and multi-religious people, and our government must reflect our diversity, and our composition must reflect the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Nigeria<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election, Atiku Abubakar, has claimed he rejected the chance to be running mate to President Bola Tinubu. Atiku also insisted he never betrayed Tinubu during their political alignment in 2007. According to him, instead, he stood up to his then-principal, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":96968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[1570,2140,316,254,945],"class_list":["post-96969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-atiku","tag-nigeria","tag-tinubu"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy I rejected Tinubu as my running mate \u2013 Atiku opens up - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election, Atiku Abubakar, has claimed he re ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/why-i-rejected-tinubu-as-my-running-mate-atiku-opens-up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why I rejected Tinubu as my running mate \u2013 Atiku opens up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election, Atiku Abubakar, has claimed he re ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/why-i-rejected-tinubu-as-my-running-mate-atiku-opens-up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-05T20:06:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-05T23:04:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2023\/10\/sm_1696530604.897652.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1728\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1152\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/why-i-rejected-tinubu-as-my-running-mate-atiku-opens-up#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/why-i-rejected-tinubu-as-my-running-mate-atiku-opens-up\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Why I rejected Tinubu as my running mate \u2013 Atiku opens up\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-05T20:06:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-05T23:04:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/why-i-rejected-tinubu-as-my-running-mate-atiku-opens-up\"},\"wordCount\":343,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/why-i-rejected-tinubu-as-my-running-mate-atiku-opens-up#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2023\/10\/sm_1696530604.897652.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Nigeria\",\"Atiku\",\"Nigeria\",\"Tinubu\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/why-i-rejected-tinubu-as-my-running-mate-atiku-opens-up#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/why-i-rejected-tinubu-as-my-running-mate-atiku-opens-up\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/why-i-rejected-tinubu-as-my-running-mate-atiku-opens-up\",\"name\":\"Why I rejected Tinubu as my running mate \u2013 Atiku opens up - 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