The All Progressive Congress in Adamawa, has said there’s no cause for alarm over the call of former secretary to the federation Babachir Lawal, and his group, on Christians, to reject the presidential bid of Bola Tinubu, over his choice of Kashim Shettima, a Muslim, as his running mate, ahead of the 2023 elections.
Reacting to the call by Northern Christians Stakeholders, at a recent meeting held in Abuja, with a directive on Christians to reject the same faith ticket, by supporting any ticket, that reflects the diversity of the country, the Adamawa State chapter of the APC has said there’s no cause for alarm over the directive from Babachir and his group.
Speaking to our reporter via phone, Mohammed Abdullahi, publicity Secretary, of the APC in Adamawa said, the party could not reconcile the opposition, by the christian leaders, of APC extraction who met in Abuja, urging Christians in the country to reject the APC.
He said it is incomprehensible that Christians were being asked to reject the APC, whereas there were Christians within the APC who are seeking elective offices under the same platform.
According to the party, those Christian leaders who made the call have expressed their opinion, but they must be told that there were still lots of other Christians who would work and support the APC to success in the polls.
It said, ” Asking Christians not to vote for the same faith ticket when there are other Christians seeking elective offices under the banner of the All Progressive Congress is hard to reconcile.
Well, they have only expressed their own opinion. We have Christians who are in the leadership of the APC, who are also seeking elective offices. Are they saying this one’s should also be rejected. The group which met in Abuja have expressed their opinion but we are sure we are going to work with those that we have been working together with. So there’s no cause for alarm.”
Mohammed, who’s the spokesperson for the Adamawa Chapter of the APC, also counselled against disunity, while suing for understanding from stakeholders to refrain from making religion a major criteria for leadership selection as opposed to meritocracy and competence.
He said, ” It is all about this country, if we can import anybody from anywhere to come and fix our problems I think we will be better for it. We should not be divided across religious lines. That is why we are not moving forward. We should all be thinking about meritocracy and capabilities in leadership, not about religion.
If we make religion a yardstick we can only confine ourselves to our churches and our mosques and not in the political arena. If we want to play politics let credible people who have actual sense of moving this nation forward, come forward to lead.
As far as we are concerned they should look at the country, beyond religious reasoning. Religion is personal and when we talk about unity and development it transcends religion, ethnic and regional lines, it borders on patrotism and the political will to move this country forward.”
