Rising from its emergency meeting, yesterday, in Lagos, the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) vowed to mobilise its members against voting for any party with Muslim-Muslim ticket in next year’s election.
National President, PFN, Bishop Francis Wale Oke, also declare Sunday, June 26, 2022 a PVC Day in all its churches nationwide, where members would made to show their PVCs before entering the church.
Oke admitted that Nigeria was currently at a cross road, particularly as the 2023 elections approached.
He said the 2023 election carried the potential to unite Nigeria across ethnic and religious line and that it could also scatter the nation if things were not done properly.
Saying that the church would continue to contribute its quota to indivisible Nigeria, the PFN boss warned against Muslim-Muslim ticket by any party in the presidential election.
Oke stated that not only PFN had been talking about it, but that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) had also been kicking against such move.
“We are not talking about the Muslim-Muslim ticket on the basis that we are Christians, but on basis of fairness, equity,” he said.
He said the church would move against Christian-Christian ticket and Muslim-Muslim ticket, saying that it would help to bring down tension in the midst of killings.
“A Christian-Christian and Muslim-Muslim ticket will not work for Nigeria. Muslim-Muslim ticket is unfair, it means over 54percent of the Christian populace will be marginalised.
“If all that the church has said and a party did not listen to our counsel, they will meet us at the poll, we will be waiting for them.
“All PFN chapters nationwide have declared Sunday, June 26 as PVC Sunday. It will be a communal service, all members of voting age must come to church with their PVCs. Members are to show their PVCs before they enter the church,” Oke stated.
He said after that, the church would now mandate all who did not have their cards to go out and get theirs before the expirations day.
“The voters’ apathy that has been the issue will not count in this election. After PVC Sunday, we will deliberate and provide a clear direction for the church in collaboration with CAN so that we can deliver block votes to a candidate that will unite this nation, a party that will not encourage the killing of Deborah. We will give all party a fair chance. We are setting a high-powered member committee to meet with all parties how they will deal with insecurity and others.
“We want a just nation that caters for all its citizens no matter the religion, we encourage all believers to register and get their PVCs and wait for the instruction from church founders how they will go about it,” he added.
Similarly, the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria has berated politicians who are clamouring for a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket, calling it “most insensitive and tacit endorsement of negative voices of non-state actors threatening the country’s unity.”
This is as it strongly advised the political parties toying with the possibility of flying same-religion presidential ticket to have a rethink and present a more inclusive alternative.
Its position was made known in a statement co-signed by the CSN Secretary-General, Rev. Fr. Zacharia Samjumi, and Director, Social Communications, Rev. Fr. Michael Umoh, which was made available to newsmen, yesterday, in Abuja.
The Catholic Secretariat also said those mulling a Muslim-Muslim ticket were merely playing the ostrich with the apparent religious crisis and polarisation in the country.
The statement reads in part, “Ordinarily, there would have been nothing wrong with a Muslim-Muslim or Christian-Christian ticket in a democratic dispensation if there is mutual trust and respect for the human person and where the overriding desire for seeking political office is the fostering of the common good. But one cannot really say so of our country at the moment.
“With the present glaring crisis and division in the nation, a Muslim-Muslim ticket would be most insensitive and a tacit endorsement of the negative voices of many non-state actors who have been threatening this nation’s unity and peaceful coexistence without an arrest.
“It is disheartening to observe that the conduct of most of our politicians seem to be going from bad to worse as we witnessed a show of shame and heightened ugly culture of money politics during the recently held primaries.
“While all this is going on, we must not lose sight of the fact that the unity of this country has, over the years, been maintained by a delicate balancing of the religious and the regional.”
The CSN noted that even in the despotic military regimes, most juntas ensured a balance of the religious architecture in their regimes.
It said, “For instance, we had Murtala-Obasanjo, Obasanjo-Yar’Adua, Babangida-Ebitu Ukiwe, Abacha–Diya. This also applied to the heads of the various military formations and the different government parastatals like Customs, Immigrations, Finance, etc.
“Significantly, it was only during the General Muhammadu Buhari era as military Head of State (December 31, 1983 – August 27, 1985) that we had a Muslim-Muslim military dictatorship.
“Similarly, only once did we have a Muslim-Muslim ticket in the 1993 democratic elections, which featured Abiola-Kingibe ticket and turned out to be one of Nigeria’s freest and fairest elections. But that government never took off.
“We, therefore, strongly advise those political parties toying with divisive agenda to have a rethink by presenting a more inclusive ticket, while calling on all people of goodwill to resist this budding injustice that may be hatched against a cross section of the people.
“There must be sensitivity in the spread of political positions without compromising competence,” the statement added.