The leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Tinubu/ Shettima campaign organization has reacted to the endorsement of the Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi by APC Northern Christian group.
Newsonline reports that the spokesman of the Tinubu campaign organization, Festus Keyamo said, the statement which was released on Thursday by the group’s leader, a former secretary to government of the federation, Babachir Lawal was the most ridiculous in 2022.
Festus Keyamo, said Lawal’s statement along with his group members that Tinubu will not get 25 percent of votes in all Hausa/Fulani states is stupid.
Babachir Lawal in the statement which was released yesterday read, “Tinubu is relying on people that are unreliable. He will not get 25 percent in all the Hausa-Fulani states. Now that he has sidelined the Christians, he will lose Adamawa, Benue, etc. He can’t even count on the Yoruba votes.”
Reacting to the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Keyamo replied, “40 million registered members; 22 sitting Governors; absolute majority in the National Assembly; our candidate that ranks as the best Governor in the last 23 years; the main opposition in total disarray with 5 rebel Govs. Not on the ballot? The most ridiculous statement in 2022!”
The statement by APC Northern Christian group further read in part, “Then, out of nowhere this man Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a renown Yoruba-hegemonist, a man who championed the establishment of a Ministry of Regional Integration in each state government of the South-west geopolitical region which he bestrides as an emperor, and a man who was once quoted as saying “I do not believe in one Nigeria” (THISDAY, The Sunday Newspaper, April 13, 1997, page 9) comes up with a Muslim-muslim ticket knowing fully well that religion is the underbelly of Northern Nigeria. APC’s same-faith ticket is a ploy to further sow discord among Northerners using the most potent weapon of social discord – religion. As Karl Max once said – “religion is the opium of the people”. Nigerians from all shades of the society must see this Tinubu/Kashim same-faith ticket as a proposal from the pit of hell that can only be conjured by the most Machiavellian minds known to man and therefore must be rejected wholesome by all lovers of our country and its nascent democracy.
“On the other hand, Alhaji Kashim Shetima, Tinubu’s Vice Presidential running mate is a man who once said “restructuring my foot, let’s restructure our minds”. For eight years he presided over Borno State at a time when Boko Haram was overrunning the state almost at will and restructuring the minds of its victims against Christianity and western education. The kidnapped Chibok and Dapchi girls and many more are now slowly trickling out of captivity in the Boko Haram indoctrination camps fully Islamized and carrying children born into Islam in captivity – a true example of “mind restructuring” if there ever was one.
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“There is also this little matter of an allegation of a very close relationship or otherwise between the Vice Presidential candidate of APC and Boko Haram! And, which Christian can forget one Kabiru Sokoto the alleged Boko Haram kingpin accused of complicity in the Christmas bombing of St Theresa Catholic Church, Madallah that resulted in 44 deaths and 77 injured Christian worshippers? Or that the said Kabiru Sokoto was eventually arrested at his hiding place in the Borno State Government Lodge Abuja? Are Christians not justified in being scared of a government run by these duo?”
It added, “in our quest for justice and equity in the socio-political and religious space of the country, it is obvious that only the Obi/Datti ticket has the potential of speaking to the genuine clamor for power shift to the South-East and at the same time speak to the cry of marginalization by our people of the South-East. Obviously, a Christian/Muslim presidency like the Obi/Datti one will be most appropriate at this stage of our political journey more so since we are now transiting from a Muslim/Christian presidency. It will also achieve the regional shift of the presidency from the current NW/SW to a SE/NW presidency as popularly being canvassed . This is justice; this is equity. This is political engineering at its best and one that engineers peace and harmonious co-existence of the various socio-political and religious classes of our nation.”
