Dr Josef Onoh has said that the All Progressives Congress candidate is in the best position to win next year’s presidential election than the Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi and his Peoples Democratic Party candidate counterpart, Atiku Abubakar because Bola Tinubu is not as religiously inclined such as the opposition presidential candidates do.
Specifically, the BAT Presidential Spokesman in the South East accused Obi of having visited all the churches in Nigeria and even in diaspora, relying on the strength of religiosity more than the APC candidate to win the presidential election of February 25 2023.
According to Onoh, religion should not be a yard stick for measuring the 2023 presidential election, particularly, when the opposition has relied heavily on their touted Muslim/Muslim ticket of the APC, while overlooking their deeper religious hypocrisy.
He said that if it was Tinubu who had visited all the mosques in Nigeria, the opposition would have been very furious, shouting ‘Islamaiztion agenda’ but failed to see the ‘Christianization of Nigeria’ in the opposition’s malodorous politicking.
“So, why do we have double standards? Why do we deceive ourselves by cutting standards? In order words it’s not about Muslim/Muslim tickets after all, but a gimmick by the old brigade to discredit Tinubu. These are desperate politicians who want to use religion to discredit opponents. What I am saying is that we should think out of the box. The so-called Muslim/Muslim has only offered them the conducive excuse to continue to exploit the gullibility of some Nigerians.”
Onoh also faulted the opposition on its Chatham House critique, stating that Tinubu was misrepresented by inferring that he encouraged political violence at an after event function, noting that Asiwaju was realistic in espousing the obvious that power is negotiated and taken.
He said that power negotiation has not much to do with religion, regretting that it was unfortunate politics has been religionised by pretenders who want power by all means, instead on leaving it in the hands of practical politicians with nationalistic traits.
“So we should look beyond religion in the Tinubu/Shettima presidency and stop deceiving ourselves when we cannot apply the religious faultiness in our various states, otherwise why should we have Christian/Christian governors or Muslim/Muslim governors in our states? Governor El-Rufai has not Islamized Kaduna state, nor has any of his Christian counterparts.
“There are more Christian governors with Christian deputies than there are Muslim Governors with Muslim Deputies in Nigeria, but that has not been made a campaign issue by the Muslims. The choice of Kashim Shettima as Asiwaju’s running mate was because of his service delivery track record and never had anything to do with religious inclination.
“The major factors that contributed to the choice of Senator Shettima are the plethora of mindboggling achievements that the senator had garnered in his eight years as Borno State governor; the selfless manner he spearheaded an excellent change of baton of leadership, which brought current Governor Babagana Zulum to power and which has has turned out to be an exceptional pick, an icing on the cake. The third is the heart and unparalleled courage he had shown; he stood his grounds and refused to flee despite legitimate reasons to and the sincerity of his leadership in the face of all the dangers. Kashim Shettima passed through a moment when the North was looking for a hero, took advantage of it, and played his cards very well.”
Article updated 2 months ago. Content is written and modified by multiple authors.
