DOGARA CAUTIONS CHRISTIANS AGAINST APC-SAME-FAITH TICKET
Former speaker of the house of representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara has charged christians to place nation building ahead of individuals and resist the temptation to waste their votes on the same faith presidential and vice presidential candidates of the All Progressives Congress.
He said that christians must see their votes as talents given by God to trade with and as seeds that must not be wasted on candidates who do not have regard for national unity and nation building.
He gave the warning today while delivering his keynote address at the summit “Meet the church: the role of the church in nation building” held in Abuja by the Nigeria National Christian Coalition (NNCC)
He pointed out that long before the adoption of the same faith ticket, the church had warned against it through the Christian Association of Nigeria, Catholic Secretariat and so many other christian organizations.
“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”.
Honourable Dogara described the adoption of muslim-muslim ticket as a political move that is guaranteed to end in spectacular failure because it negates the fundamentals of nation building, such as shared identity, values and visions.
He said that he is elated that the present church in Nigeria has shaken off the beast of complacency of the past into fire by speaking up and resisting measures adopted by some political platforms that will hamper nation building.
“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. To this end, it will be easy to generate the needed elite consensus that is key to nation building. All nations are built by elite consensus while all countries that failed in nation-building are destroyed by elite complacency.”
Speaking, the vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, said that religious organisations and groups should show interest in engaging not just a political class, but the three arms of government as major stakeholders in Nigeria project.
Represented by Senator Uche Ekwunife, he said that Nigerians are tired of politicians who chant the problems bedeviling the nation, but lack concrete solutions to the challenges.
The convener of NNCC, Apostle Titilope Oluwadare said that in every great nation the main stakeholders engage and negotiate power, positions and policies to avoid retrogression.
She emphasised that it is time for christians to understand that until the church engages and brings forth her interests and drives it into ideas and fashion out political strategies, the system will not be sanitised.
She advised that the church should avoid playing a mere reactionary part in Nigeria’s political process but rise to the challenges of the time and save the country.
