Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has said that the All Progressives Congress ought to have consulted the leadership of the Christian body before unveiling its Muslim-Muslim ticket.
According to him, knowing the political criteria behind it would have doused the controversy it generated.
He said this on Sunday when he hosted the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria in the state.
He clarified that Muslim-Muslim ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying it was not done to undermine the Christians influence or relevance, but simply a calculated political strategy by the party to win the Presidential election.
He said, “You raised a matter that is agitating the minds of many Christians particularly Christians who are not in politics but I can tell you that Christians who are in politics are equally concerned about the matter you have raised about the Muslim-Muslim ticket. Not so much because of faith but because of fair representation and representation in a multi ethnic, multi religious, multi- cultural setting is always going to be an issue of concern. But I have also had cause to discuss this with our political associates and our fathers in the Lord.
“But where we are now, my plea with Christians is to do that which is expected of us. Yes, the agitation must continue and on my part as a Christian, I have been talking to both the Presidential candidate and other leaders of the party that we need to take quick steps that we should have taken earlier by approaching the leadership in Christendom and explain the context of the selection that was about to happen. Even if they don’t agree with our choice, they would have seen the sincerity of purpose and understood that the decision was not on ground of competence because we have competent Christians all over Nigeria but on grounds of strategic political moves, which is what we do in politics. We have to look at scenarios and calculate where the votes would come from, it is a game of numbers.
“I think it is time for Christians to move away from the theology of disengagement – the notion that politics is dirty and that it is not for a child of God. When serious Christians committed to the ideals of social justice and the common good turn away from politics, they open the door for unprincipled opportunists to take power. Fortunately, not all of us can or will be in elective office. Not all of us have to. What matters is for each of us to find our place in the move to build our nation and be faithful to the demands of that task.
The Christian leadership should use this current challenge as an opportunity to present a charter of demands to all political candidates, especially our party (APC), outlining the irreducible minimum conditions acceptable to Christians in the next political dispensation. A charter of demands that would represent those values you preach to us in church highlighting our concerns, stressing the place of Christendom in the Nigeria project and then placing our demands before the political leaders. I want the Church to organise debates around issues of concerns among all the candidates.”
