The Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 general elections, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, is desperate to become Nigeria’s President.
He is so desperate to have religious leaders back his Muslim-Muslim ticket, unpopular as that decision has become across the country.
So desperate, he has now resorted to coercing religious leaders and handing cassocks or religious robes to anyone on the streets.
It’s an embarrassing new low, even for a Tinubu who declared to run for the office of President by stating that ruling Nigeria has been a “lifelong ambition” for him.
Yet, no one should be this desperate to govern their country. No one should resort to hiring fake bishops and pastors to endorse their cause.
In the last couple of days, Tinubu’s camp has lied about their candidate arranging a meeting with the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). They have lied about Pastor Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) endorsing their Muslim-Muslim ticket.
And on Wednesday, July 20, the entire nation watched in horror as men who couldn’t adorn their religious robes properly, filed into the Yar’adua Center in Abuja where Tinubu was unveiling ex-Borno Governor Kashim Shettima as his running mate.
The intention was clear: the appearance of Bishops, Pastors and Clergymen at the unveiling of a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket, would add some kind of fillip to the ticket and quieten the nay-sayers who have maintained that the ticket, in a deeply divided, multi-religious country like Nigeria, would not fly.
It was all staged to render some semblance of religious agreement to what has been termed a divisive ticket in most quarters. But boy, did it backfire so badly!
As it turned out, the so called ‘men of God’ who took to the venue of the event to endorse the ticket were all fake.
It was the apex Christian organisation in Nigeria who first saw through the shenanigans and the show of shame playing out embarrassingly in Abuja.
“The people we saw at the unveiling of Shettima paraded as Bishops, are people who did not have enough time to learn how to wear Bishop garments.
“Take a closer look at their photos and you will see another Nollywood movie,” screamed Rev. Joseph John Hayab, Vice President of CAN and its Kaduna Chairman.
“BAT (Bola Ahmed Tinubu) is free to hire mechanics and other artisans and sew clerical garments for them. An effort that will only add to their many ropes when the political exercise is over but will not change the need for fairness and justice that CAN is calling for,” he added.
The Catholic Church in Nigeria has also disowned the Bishops, saying they didn’t emanate from the church.
Some of the fake Bishops did their best to run away and hide from media cameras; and took to their heels as journalists bore down and assailed them with a barrage of questions on their real identities.
The ones who were brave enough to face the press, confessed that they were paid to show up at the venue by Tinubu’s people. Others said they are yet to receive the full sum of what was agreed.
One of the clerical impostors, who identified himself as Joseph Odaudu, confessed that he was promised N100,000, but had only received N40,000 for his troubles.
“They came to meet us at the car park behind Eagle Square and they promised to give me N100,000. They bought food for us and took us to another place where they gave us clothes to dress like Christian leaders and Reverend fathers,” Odaudu told The Gazette, shortly after the event in Abuja on Wednesday.
“But after we finished, they only gave me N40,000 and another person said they got only N30,000. I don’t know why they changed our agreement because they said they had N100,000 for us.
“I am a Christian and I am supporting Tinubu but I hate when people lie and fail to deliver on their promises,” he added.
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No presidential candidate or politician should descend to this level to get people behind their ticket(s) or choices.
This writer has no problems with a Muslim-Muslim ticket and doesn’t think that a religiously balanced ticket has wrought any discernible changes in this long-suffering nation. Religion is far from the answer to our endemic challenges and any idiot should know that by now.
However, Tinubu’s desperation for the nation’s top job rankles and comes across as a red flag. By most accounts, running mate Shettima is a performer and a decent man, albeit one with a loose tongue. Tinubu has repeatedly stated that he went for Shettima because of the latter’s competence, his religion be damned.
Jagaban must now find a better way–other than dressing up hungry-looking louts and brigands and asking them to pose as Bishops–to get the generality of voters behind his ticket.