Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah has said that he does not accept the decision of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to pick a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket.
The cleric made this statement during an interview with Channels Television on Thursday, August 13, 2022. He noted that the ticket will draw the nation backward and also affect its integration.
Kukah said, “The question I have asked my friends who are Muslims, especially those who are from northern Nigeria, is a simple question: ‘Would Muslims in Nigeria or northern Nigeria be ready to make the same concession that Christians made in 1984 and 1993?
“I think that as a Christian, this is totally reprehensible. It is not acceptable to me, but that is the decision of the APC as a party. Perhaps, when the campaign starts, we will hear what people have to say.”
Since the presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Tinubu, picked former governor of Borno state, Kashim Shettima, as his running mate, there has been an uproar in some parts of the country. This was due to the fact that Tinubu and Shettima are Muslims and it is assumed that they sidelined Christians who form a major number in the population of the country.
So far, some persons including the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, have also spoken against the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC.
Dogara said, “I want to say emphatically that CAN’s position on the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket in this country, at this moment of national peril, is not just CAN’s or that of Babachir David Lawal, whom many have accused of being the only one who has turned it into an issue.
“I believe it (the rejection of a same-faith ticket) is also the Almighty’s own position, because we serve a God of justice. He is the righteous One as well as the author of diversity, and he wants us, as diverse as we are, to come together.
“So, CAN’s stance is the position of all of us (Christian political leaders) who love righteousness, justice as well as diversity and are working to harness these for the advancement of this country.
“In as much as what we are fighting for is a godly position, every other position is ungodly. There’s no middle way. It’s either you are for righteousness, justice and inclusivity or you are working against the unity of this great country.”
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