The Adamawa state All Progressive Congress has said that there is no cause for alarm over the call by 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 and to support any ticket that reflects the diversity of the country ahead of the 2023 elections.
Speaking to the Fact Check on telephone, the publicity secretary of the APC in Adamawa, Mohammed Abdullahi, the party could not conjure up the rationale behind the anti-party antichrist threat.
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 that they should also be rejected?
“The group that 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.