An All Progressives Congress (APC) group under the auspices of Aggrieved Northern APC Christians has thrown its weight behind the Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, for the 2023 election.
The group said it decided to support the Obi/Datti presidential ticket after a “painstaking review and analysis” of the alternative tickets.
In a statement by one of its leaders, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal on Wednesday, the group described the APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket as satanic, adding that it is a deliberate and well-calculated plan to sow a seed of religious discord among Nigerians, particularly Northerners.
According to the statement “The APC same-faith is a deliberate, well-calculated plan to sow the seeds of religious and social discord among Nigerians. It is obvious that Northerners, in particular, are the intended targets and victims of this satanic plan. It is an indisputable fact that the whole of Northern Nigeria is currently mired in several intractable socio-economic problems due to the activities of several nebulous criminal groups.
“Agriculture, the mainstay of the northern economy, is all but abandoned because kidnappers and bandits have prevented people from venturing out of the safety of their homes. Interstate and intercity travel for either business or leisure have all but ceased not only due to un-motorable roads but more so for fear of kidnapping, armed robbery and other forms of banditry. Our rural schools have all but closed for fear of kidnappers. Government-owned universities have closed thus depriving the children of the already impoverished Northern masses access to affordable higher education. Thus, our out-of-school and idle children have become easy targets for recruitment by bandits and kidnappers. And there is no solution in sight.
“Then, out of nowhere, this man Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a renown Yoruba-hegemonist, a man who championed the establishment of a Ministry of Regional Integration in each state government of the South-west geopolitical region which he bestrides as an emperor, and a man who was once quoted as saying “I do not believe in one Nigeria” (THISDAY, The Sunday Newspaper, April 13, 1997, page 9) comes up with a Muslim-Muslim ticket knowing fully well that religion is the underbelly of Northern Nigeria. APC’s same-faith ticket is a ploy to further sow discord among Northerners using the most potent weapon of social discord – religion. As Karl Max once said – “religion is the opium of the people”. Nigerians from all shades of society must see this Tinubu/Kashim same-faith ticket as a proposal from the pit of hell that can only be conjured by the most Machiavellian minds known to man and therefore must be rejected wholesome by all lovers of our country and its nascent democracy.”
While advising citizens against voting for the APC presidential candidacy, the group said it believes that the Obi/Datti ticket will give Nigeria “a breath of fresh air and the greatest opportunity to redeem the country from the quagmire into which it has been plunged by a recurring group of self-centered reactionaries.”
