The former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu
Dogara has warned Christians in the country not to waste their votes in the
forth-coming 2023 general elections, saying that the adoption of the same faith
Presidential and Vice-president ticket by the ruling All Progressives
Congress(APC) is antithetical to Nigeria’s quest for nation building.
On Tuesday at a summit tagged “Meet the Church” organized by
the Nigerian National Christians Coalition (NNCC) with the theme; “The role of
the Church in Nation Building”, Dogara said every Christian knows that God does
not tolerate waste and as such, it is unchristian for the church to waste anything
given to them from above.
He argued that the APC ignored warnings by the Christian
Association of Nigeria (CAN), Catholic Secretariat, ECWA church and many other
Christian bodies and adopted the same faith ticket in a manner that negated the
fundamentals of nation building, such as shared identity, values and vision.
“The APC adopted the same faith ticket in a country that has
never attained nationhood. These warnings were not only ignored but dismissed
in one fell swoop by the APC presidential candidate who strangely believes that
he can build a strong, secure and viable nation-state without first forging a
shared identity, vision and values for our people thereby enabling us transit
from citizens of a country into a nation of people with strong shared identity
and values.”
“In their convoluted posturing, they have placed
state-building ahead of nation-building; a task never before achieved in
history and we need no seer to tell us that such endeavour is guaranteed to end
in spectacular failure. No divided people have ever built any civilization.”
“To demonstrate that the church is right, it is not alone in
condemning the same faith ticket. Other prominent Islamic clerics and Muslim
leaders have also spoken in the same light. It is a good omen that both
Christian and Muslim elites are not complacent over this matter. To this end,
it will be easy to generate the needed elite consensus that is key to
nation-building. All nations are built by elite consensus while all countries
that failed at nation-building were destroyed by elite complacency.”
“Granted that the Christians and Muslims will always
disagree on some issues, there are, however, many things over which we are
agreeable. It is enough to forge ahead with the task of nation-building based
on those common issues we agree on. It must be noted that just as Muslims alone
cannot build a nation out of Nigeria so also Christians alone cannot. We have
to work together on “nation formations” he said
Dogara commended the church in the country for shaking off the beast of the complacency of the past by speaking up and resisting measures adopted by some political platforms that will hamper nation-building.
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