By Ibekimi Oriamaja
Tunde Bakare, General Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church (CGCC) and former presidential aspirant, has urged church leaders to approach the controversy surrounding the APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket with civility, clarity, and continued faith in the prospects of a united Nigeria.
Bakare stated that the focus should be on ensuring good governance and the emergence of a united Nigeria where irrational sentiments of ethnicity, religion, or tribe would not matter, in what appeared to be subtle support for Tinubu’s decision to pick former Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima as running mate.
According to Bakare, opposition to the so-called Muslim-Muslim ticket is unsurprising given the country’s diversity, mood, and the extent to which true nationhood has yet to be formed.
Nigerians, according to the clergyman, aspire to live in a country where every citizen, regardless of political party or religion, has complete freedom and liberty to run for any political office at any time.
“We dream of a Nigeria where the political mantra will no longer be “emi lo kan” or “awa lo kan,” but “Nigeria lo kan;” “we dream of a Nigeria where every Nigerian citizen, at any point in time, will have the absolute freedom and liberty to contest for any political office and will be assured of the citizens’ wise use of the power of the vote regardless of where he or she is from or how old he or she is.”
He continued by saying that Nigerian Christian leaders are currently suffering as a result of decades of false teaching that Christians have no place in politics.
He did, however, advocate shifting the discussion away from politics and toward governance for Northern Nigerian Christians who feel marginalized as a result of the choice of a Northern Muslim as running mate.
