Adebayo Shittu, the former Minister of Communications and the Director General of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu Presidential Campaign Organisation, has on Tuesday asserted that Muslims make up 65% of the southwestern part of Nigeria.
Shittu, who made this known on AIT during the Focus Nigeria Show, stated this while justifying the decision of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, to pick a fellow Muslim, Kashim Shettima, as his running mate.
Recall that Tinubu, a southern Muslim, had incurred the wrath of the Christian Association of Nigerian, some party members and political stakeholders when he announced Shettima as his running mate.
While justifying his principal’s choice, Shittu maintained that southwestern Nigerians were predominantly Muslims.
“In the South-West of Nigeria, the Muslims constitute an average of 65% of the population”, the lawyer asserted.
When asked if his claim was based on fact or projection, he said: “I don’t tell lies. You can investigate. Do your research.”
He added: “It is on the basis of religion that people are making noise about the so-called Muslim-Muslim ticket.
“In Ekiti, it is Christian-Christian ticket. In Ondo, it is Christian-Christian ticket. In Edo, where the Northern part of the state is largely Muslim, it is Christian-Christian ticket. Nobody is making noise about this”, he stated.
Speaking on APC’s loss in the Osun State governorship election, Shittu noted that the defeat of the incumbent governor, Gboyega Oyetola, was a very big disappointment.
In his words: “The Osun incident was a very big disappointment. But for some of us, it was not too surprising and I regret to say this. A lot of factors must have contributed to what happened.”
On Sunday, the Independent National Electoral Commission declared Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party, the winner of Saturday’s governorship election in the state.
The Returning Officer for the election and Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, said Adeleke got a total of 403,371 votes to beat Governor Oyetola who polled 375,027 votes in the keenly contested race.
In the meantime, in a recent interview on Channels TV, Adeleke had noted that the misunderstanding between Oyetola and his predecessor, Rauf Aregbesola, aided his victory.