MONDAY DISCOURSE
As CAN Grills Tinubu, Atiku, Obi, Adebayo... Onyebuchi Ezigbo
The leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria recently interfaced with presidential candidates of All Progressives Congress, Peoples Democratic Party, Labour Party and Social Democratic Party. The meeting turned out to be an interesting, mind-rubbing opportunity for the Christian leaders to hear the candidates unveil their agenda and respond to the strong positions of CAN on national issues. reports
Four presidential candidates namelybAsiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP), and Adewole Adebayo of Social Democratic Party (SDP) recently held court on different days with the leadership of CAN.
The meetings discussed extensively issues, such as same faith candidacy, restructuring, economy, and security, among others.
President of CAN, Most Rev. Daniel Okoh said the interaction was to collectively review the understanding of the Nigerian crisis of development and governance and to seek a lasting solution to them.
Okoh said CAN had consulted widely with Nigerians of diverse religious, ethnic and social identities on the problems of Nigeria and had come up with position on how most the contentious issues could be resolved.
The solutions to the problems have been articulated in the association’s strategic document called: “Charter for Future Nigeria’’.
“The Charter begins with a diagnosis of Nigeria’s problem and locates it primarily in an incoherent Constitutional and institutional framework that defines governance and social and economic interactions.
“In this interaction, we will present the highpoints of this strategic document and listen to your response to the issues they raise,’’ he said.
According to him, CAN’s interest is that all candidates should clearly understand the concerns of Nigerian Christians and propose policies and programmes to address those concerns.
“We believe that with this kind of respectful and sincere conversation we will find lasting solutions to these crises.
It was as if CAN had set up a panel to quiz the politicians on their agenda and issues of nation building. The association had it’s template well established.
APC’s Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
Tinubu’s appearance at the CAN forum was dominated with issues relating to his choice of a Muslim Vice Presidential candidate against the agitation by the Christian body. As soon as the CAN president finished his introductory speech, the document containing concerns of Christians were read out, prominent among which was the issue of secularity on the country and the need to protect that interest by political parties seeking power.
Understanding the direction of the minds of the Christian leaders seated at the hall, Tinubu went straight to address his Muslim-Muslim ticket palaver by allaying fears over his samefaith ticket and told the CAN leadership that his decision to vie for the nation’s top job was in line with the country’s constitution.
Tinubu said: “I seek to become Nigerian
president not on religious grounds but on the Constitution. Thanks to the body for the invitation to candidates to speak of their plans for the nation”.
Laying the template for his discussion with CAN, the APC standard bearer said, “I did not choose Senator Shettima so that we could form a same faith ticket. The ticket was constructed as a same progressive and people-based ideology ticket.
“I offer a confession. I selected Senator Shettima thinking more about who would best help me govern. Picking a Christian running mate would have been politically easier. But the easy way is rarely the right one. The selection of a running mate is at once a very momentous yet very intimate decision.”
Lashing out at his critics, especially, those from his party, who were against his choice of MuslimMuslim ticket, Tinubu said some of them lobbied profusely for the vice presidential position but were rejected by him.
While seeking to address the fears of Christians regarding threats to Nigeria’s secularity by the APC presidency, Tinubu said both his family background and track record as governor could bail him out as someone, who was not biased.
He stated, “As governor of Lagos, I partnered with the Christians to improve lives and foster education. For instance, I returned mission
schools to their owners, most of who are Christians. I instituted yearly Christian Denomination Service at the governor’s residence as we approached the New Year. This tradition continues in Lagos.
“I believe in the need for a secular government and for us to work in the interest of the country just as I did in Lagos State by returning the missionary schools to the rightful owners.
“I never chased people out of Lagos. My choice of Shettima is borne out of the urgent need to address the challenges facing the country as Shettima possesses strong leadership abilities which he exhibited when he was the governor of Borno State. I wanted a progressive government that was why I selected Shettima.
“Choosing a Christian running mate would have been easy but that is not the case. We have urgent challenges that do not depend on religious leanings but on the best of hands that can address it.”
Tinubu who was flanked by his wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, tried not to allow the issue of same faith ticket to overshadow his other plans to rebuild Nigeria. As he said that the record he set in Lagos is there for everyone to see how he turned around the fortunes of the state. The Jagaban as he was called out by supporters promised to tackle the challenges facing the country such as insecurity, economy and poverty. He pledged to always carry all segments of the country along including CAN if elected president in the next year’s election.
PDP’s Atiku Abubakar
While responding to concerns raised by the apex Christian body, the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, who was the first to engage with the CAN leadership at the
secretariat of the association in Abuja, said most of the issues contained in the CAN Charter of demands for a new and equitable Nigeria, were in tandem with policies he was committed to implementing if elected president of Nigeria next year.
The former vice president said his administration would tackle insecurity by increasing the size of the Nigeria Police and equipping them with the right tools of work.
According to him: “As the only practical way of dealing with it before you go to constitutional reform, when, let’s say, you bring half a million unemployed young men into the police, train them well, equip them well, that is bound to have an impact as far as this insecurity atmosphere is concerned. Then you go to the constitutional amendment, because you cannot have state police unless you have a constitutional amendment.
‘So, we’ll go into a constitutional amendment, where we will have different levels of police, if they like, state police, in the local government policy, if they like city police, whatever they like. And then we believe that in the United States, you have about three to four levels of police in some states. These are our plans to deal with the security challenges now facing our country.”
On restructuring, Atiku said the PDP government under him would deliver on restructuring for Nigerians if voted into office.
According to him, “There is a difference between the government that ran this country from 1999 to 2015 and the government that has been running this country since 2015 to date. They promised restructuring, but did they restructure? They told Nigerians what Nigerians wanted to hear, and did a different thing, when they got the opportunity. PDP never behaved like that”.
Another constitutional issue that Atiku promised to address was indigeneship, which he promised to ensure its removal from the constitution.
He said, “I am in support of the removal of the provision of indigeneship in our constitution. Once you reside in any part of this country, and you pay your taxes, you should be entitled to indigenisation.
“In fact, I don’t want to hear these indigeneship thing; I don’t want to hear the word, but I know so many other sub-nationalities are also opposed to it. But then, the majority will have their way and the minorities will have their say, when it comes to constitutional amendments”.
Atiku spoke about his plans to ‘Recover Nigeria’ especially with regards to “restructuring the country and reforming the Police and judiciary.
Okoh said CAN had consulted widely with Nigerians of diverse religious, ethnic and social identities on the problems of Nigeria and had come up with position on how most the contentious issues could be resolved. The solutions to the problems have been articulated in the association’s strategic document called: “Charter for Future Nigeria’’. “The Charter begins with a diagnosis of Nigeria’s problem and locates it primarily in an incoherent Constitutional and institutional framework that defines governance and social and economic interactions. “In this interaction, we will present the highpoints of this strategic document and listen to your response to the issues they raise,’’ he said.