The Youth wing of apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide (OYC), has reacted to the decision of Presidential flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s choice of a former Governor of Borno State, Sen. Kashim Shettima, as his running mate.
Recall that Asiwaju Tinubu had, on Sunday, announced Shettima, a fellow Muslim, as his running mate for the 2023 presidential election.
But at a press briefing, in Enugu, on Monday, the Ohanaeze youths said the choice of Kashim Shettima was against the law of natural justice.
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National President of the group, who is also the National Organising Secretary of National Ethnic Nationalities Youth Leaders’ Council, Mazi Okwu Nnabuike, said everything must be done by Nigerians to stop the APC from destroying the country.
He said the level of killings and violence targeted at Christians under the present administration was unprecedented and expressed concern that the Christian community would become a totally endangered species under the Muslim-Muslim presidency.
He declared that Tinubu’s decision was an insult on millions of Christians in the country as no religion had precedence over the other.
Said he, “Today, we have deemed it fit to alert Nigerians of a looming danger ahead of the 2023 general elections.
“This is following Bola Tinubu’s decision to opt for a Muslim-Muslim ticket, despite obvious reasons why he should not go such a route.
“This is totally unacceptable and should be rejected by anyone who means well for the country,” Okwu declared.
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Okwu also recalled that, “In 2014, Tinubu made efforts to force Muslim-Muslim ticket on Buhari, but the President resisted it by listening to the wise counsel of people like former Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki. He balanced the ticket.
“Fast forward to seven years after, Tinubu now desperately wants to actualize a Muslim-Muslim presidency. There is more to this than meets the eyes. The insensitivity of Tinubu and the APC leadership is dreadful and that is their downfall.
“We see this as a grand conspiracy to sink Nigeria. How can anyone contemplate this arrangement in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society like Nigeria?
“APC should forget 2023, they have shut themselves on the foot. We can’t allow them to destroy Nigeria.
“They lost the opportunity to compete very well in the forthcoming election. Nigerians, Christians and Muslim brothers who mean well for the country should rise and resist it to the last, it will never fly.
“The country has never been this polarized and every sensitive person should have been concerned with processes that would engender national cohesion and unity but what we have seen from APC’s Tinubu is a further division of the country.
“Tinubu claimed the choice is based on competence. Our question to him is simple: does it mean that from the 19 Northern States there is no competent Christian? We can see the obvious falsehood in Tinubu’s claims.
“No religion is more superior than the other, but this is what Tinubu is making people to believe, a situation that would throw the country into avoidable crisis.”
He urged Nigerians to place the country above self, stressing that, “justice and equity are the true ingredients of democracy.”