Media scholar, Farooq Kperogi, on Saturday said it seemed Bola Ahmed Tinubu, presidential flag-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the forthcoming 2023 election, has been rejected by Northern Muslim voters.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that according to Kperogi, Northern Muslim voters currently question Tinubu’s Muslim faith on account of his inability to recite Suratul Fatiha.
This development, Kperogi said, is buying the former Lagos State governor sympathy from Yoruba people “who didn’t care for his politics”, while Northern Muslim voters support Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Kperogi wrote in his weekly column: “Tinubu’s seeming rejection by Northern Muslim voters who now question his Muslim faith on account of his inability to recite the most recited chapter of the Muslim holy book is buying him sympathy from Yoruba people who didn’t care for his politics.
“Increasingly, even Yoruba Christians are reassessing their rejection of Tinubu’s “Muslim-Muslim” ticket. It isn’t what they thought it was. This will potentially cut into the “Christian” vote that the Peter Obi campaign had been banking on. But it was always a politically-risky strategy to rely on the religious solidarity of Yoruba voters because ethnicity is historically a stronger force in Yorubaland than religion.
“How these changing dynamics will impact the outcome of the election is still up in the air.”
