Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Candidate, has received the endorsement of some Christian clerics in Abuja to succeed Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s next President.
According to religious leaders affiliated with the Nigerian Coalition of Pastors for Good Leadership, Nigeria is down to two presidential candidates: Bola Tinubu and Labour Party (LP) candidate Peter Obi.
The clerics, on the other hand, believe the APC candidate has the right mindset to rule the country and is the best candidate for the highest political position in the country come 2023.
WITHIN NIGERIA has learned that the Pastors made this statement following a town hall meeting with some party chieftains from Tinubu’s support group, City Boy Movement.
The Christian spiritual heads said in a joint statement signed by the coalition president, Apostle Babatunde Oguntimehin, and secretary Revd Friday Obi that they support Tinubu as the ‘best’ when compared to Obi.
According to the clerics, it would be unjust for Nigerians to sacrifice the APC candidate’s ability on the altar of the divisive Muslim-Muslim ticket.
The statement read:
It is with a deep sense of duty that we members of Nigerian Coalition of Pastors for Good Leadership decide this morning to make known our position on the coming national election, especially as it concerns the vexed issue of Muslim-Muslim ticket as adopted by the ruling APC.
Our primary responsibility will be less arduous with a functional nation and a working system. Given this, we have considered it a civic responsibility and a noble cause to support and promote the candidates that can best serve the interest of our nation toward realizing her dreams.
For a start, we fully support the power shift to the South after President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner would have ruled for eight years. This is for equity and fairness and in the spirit of the existing unwritten rule to have power rotate between North and South.
We were left to choose between His Excellencies Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Peter Gregory Obi, the frontline candidates from the South. After consideration of so many critical factors and wide consultation, we have decided to settle for the candidacy of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Kashim Shettima.
Oguntimehin stated that several factors influenced the pastors’ decision to support Tinubu. Continuing, the coalition president described Nigeria as a complex nation that could only be governed by someone with demonstrable experience, capacity, ability, and capability, as evidenced by the Tinubu/Shettima ticket.
He went on to say that the APC national leader had remained committed to the cause of Nigeria, as evidenced by his participation in NADECO activities that brought the military to its knees and ushered in the current democracy in 1999.
We have since noted that making religion or faith the top factor in choosing a candidate for the nation has never helped and will never help this nation. We cannot, therefore, sacrifice quality leadership on the altar of religion or tribe.
It is therefore with sadness that we note the unnecessary controversies that have trailed the partnership of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Kashim Shettima, both of whom are Muslims.
It would be pretentious and preposterous of the NCPGL to dismiss the concerns from some quarters over the Muslim-Muslim ticket. But it is important to urge Nigerians to look beyond religion in choosing the nation’s leadership, he said.
CAN’s Stand On No Same Faith Ticket
On the other hand, the Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN) has reiterated its opposition to the APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket.
In response to the Abuja Pastors’ declaration on Sunday, Luminous Jannamike, Special Assistant on Media to CAN President, Most Rev. Daniel Okoh, said the clerics who declared their support for the former Lagos Governor is faceless.
Jannamike stated that because the body could not prevent individuals and self-proclaimed ministers from carrying out their activities, they could not be seen participating in issues with religious blocs that were not affiliated with CAN.
He said;
The message is very simple and clear. We still stand on our earlier stance of ‘No to the same-faith ticket.’ As far as we are concerned, they are a faceless group. We can’t be seen joining issues with them. They are free to do what they want to do.
We must be conscious that people can congregate under any platform they want and say whatever they want. These people are not affiliated to CAN, and we don’t even know them. They (Abuja pastors) are individuals who chose to endorse Tinubu. Good luck to them!
Had it been that it was the Catholic Church, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria or any of CAN blocs that did this, the association would be in a position to give a response. The truth is we don’t even know them.