The immediate past Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara has revealed that the All Progressives Congress (APC) ignored warnings by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Catholic Secretariat, ECWA church and many other Christian bodies against going for a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket.
He argued that the party and its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu ignored the warning and adopted the same faith ticket in a manner that negated the fundamentals of nation building, such as shared identity, values and vision.
The APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu and his running mate, Kassim Shettima are both Muslims.
Yakubu Dogara who spoke on Tuesday, in Abuja at a summit tagged “Meet the Church” organised by the Nigerian National Christians Coalition (NNCC) with the theme; “The role of the Church in Nation Building,” the APC adopted a same faith ticket in a country that has never attained nationhood.”
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“These warnings were not only ignored but dismissed in one fell swoop by the APC presidential candidate who strangely believes that he can build a strong, secure and viable nation-state without first forging a shared identity, vision and values for our people thereby enabling us transit from citizens of a country into a nation of people with strong shared identity and values.”
According to him, “In their convoluted posturing, they have placed state – building ahead of nation building; a task never before achieved in history and we need no seer to tell us that such endeavor is guaranteed to end in spectacular failure. No divided people have ever built any civilization.”
He added that, “To demonstrate that the church is right, it is not alone in condemning the same faith ticket. Other prominent Islamic clerics and Muslim leaders have also spoken in the same light. It is a good omen that both Christian and Muslim elites are not complacent over this matter”.
According to him, “Every Christian knows that our God does not tolerate waste. It is unchristian for the church to waste anything given to us from above as we own nothing except what is given to us from above.”
He also said that the adoption of the same faith Presidential and Vice Presidential ticket by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was antithetical to Nigeria’s quest for nation building.