Northern Christian groups under the aegis of Arewa Coalition for Good Governance said the hardline position of former Secretary to the Federal Government, Lawal Babachir; former Federal House Speaker Dogara; and Senator Ishaku Abbo, over APC’s choice of Muslim-Muslim ticket was based on selfish interests.
The group said the trio’s anger was predicated on the fact that none of them was picked as the part’s running mate, not on the issue of Muslim-Muslim ticket as they’re projecting.
“At a time when all critical stakeholders of APC are supposed to be working for unity and progress of the party during the forthcoming 2023 general elections, they have decided to deploy religious sentiments as a weapon of war to discourage Christians from Tinubu /Shettima,” the group said.
In a statement signed by Elder Peter Sati Auta, its leader, the coalition said: ”Nigerians , especially the electorate are wise enough to know that whipping religious sentiment against any candidate is not the solution to the challenges of insecurity; dwindling economy, Insurgency, high unemployment rate, bad governance and other problems militating against progress and development of Nigeria.”
The group acknowledged that the Holy Bible gave Christians the mandate to pray for leaders and added that “anything out of this is not only unhealthy but retrogressive.”
“This amongst several reasons is why as Christian leaders in various churches, we decided to come out and speak against the divisive move by our brothers to create a religious crack in the polity ahead of the 2023 elections.
“Instead of holding nocturnal meetings to fight the issue of of Muslim-Muslim ticket, we expected them to spend energy on talking about how to contribute their quota in finding solutions to plethora of above mentioned problems that over the past twenty years have served as cog in the wheel of progress.
“We are urging Christians to shun Babachir, Dogara and Senator Abbo’s divisive strategies and vote candidates of their choice regardless of religion and tribal backgrounds. The most important thing for Nigerians now is to come out during the election and vote good leaders based on merit, experience and records of performance.”
