2023: Northern Christian group accuses  Babachir, Dogara of whipping up religious sentiments  over Muslim- Muslim ticket

According to the group, their anger is premised on the fact that none of them was picked as running mate and not on issue of Muslim-Muslim ticket as it was being projected .

“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 posited  .

In  a press statement signed by the Leader of the Coalition of Christian groups for Good Governance,  Elder Peter Sati Auta, the group held the view that, ” Nigerians , especially the Electorate are wise enough to know that whipping religious sentiments 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 .

While stating that Holy Bible gave Christians the mandate to pray for  leaders, it noted “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 Muslim -Muslim ticket, we expected them to spend energy on   talking  about how to contribute their quota to finding solutions to plethora of above mentioned  problems that over the past 20 years have served as cog in the wheel of progress.”

While noting in the statement that  Babachir and Dogara could be the ones working  to overheat  the polity and destroy same party that gave them platform of political relevance, stressing it is mere selfish interest  of the spent forces ,which should be rejected outrightly “.

The statement further reads : “Everyone knows that both former Lagos State Governor ,Asiwaju Bola  Tinubu  and former Borno Governor , Alhaji Kashim Shettima are not religious bigots ,so the earlier they know that  the idea of whipping religious sentiments against won’t work .

“It is in public domain that Tinubu and Shettima helped good numbers of Christians during their days as Governors of Lagos and Borno States respectively.

“Where were they,when the heavy  campaign of calumny of  bieng a  “Religious Bigot” was muted  against Buhari? Of course , some of  them supported him to win and  were later  compensated with appointments. Even with all the unprintable  names Buhari was called ,yet they worked for him.

The group also asked,  ” When Babachir and Dogara held public offices ,at what point did they speak or work for Christians ?

Reacting to  what it described as “Senator Abbo’s  outburst on the Muslim-Muslim ticket problem, it simply said, “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 elections and  vote good leaders based on merit ; experience and records of performance”. The statement added.