The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has cautioned Vice President
Kashim Shettima against the “imposition” of the senate president on the
national assembly.
Shettima has been canvassing support for the candidates
nominated by the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 10th national assembly
leadership positions.
On Sunday, Shettima announced that Muktar Betara and Yusuf
Gagdi, speakership hopefuls of the house of representatives, had agreed to drop
their bids for Tajudeen Abbas, the preferred candidate of the party.
Godswill Akpabio, the
APC’s anointed candidate for the senate presidency, is facing stiff opposition
from other aspirants.
The vice president had repeatedly asked other hopefuls in
the race to step down for Akpabio.
On Sunday night, Shettima was quoted as saying that the most
incompetent southern Christian is better than the most puritanical northern
Muslim for the senate presidency.
However, in a statement issued on Monday, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed,
NEF spokesperson, said Shettima’s remarks were “most unbecoming and
irresponsible”.
“The Northern Elders
Forum has cautioned the President Tinubu administration on many occasions to
respect the rights and privileges of elected members of the legislature to
choose their leaders and to conduct its campaign for its preferences with
sensitivity and decorum,” the statement reads.
Baba-Ahmed said Shetimma’s comments “deepens the worrying
position of religious faith as a fault line in our politics today and
denigrates the place of an important value such as faith in the conduct of elected
leaders whether they are Muslims or Christians”.
“The suggestion that poor faith and incompetence can be
preferred to piety and competence when it suits political interests sends
damaging signals to a nation desperate for good leadership,” he said.
“A statement of this nature coming from a northern Muslim
who has earned his respect in the course of his political career is most
unfortunate.
“The suggestion that
the piety of leaders could be sacrificed
for political exigences offends a nation of Christians and Muslims who watch as
leaders swear by the Qur’an and the Bible to protect the constitution of the
federal republic of Nigeria.”
The NEF said the vice president has done himself, his faith
and his standing a “great injury with his comments” and that he should find
appropriate opportunities to assure Nigerians that the Tinubu administration
will “respect sensitive values that define us as Nigerians”.
“It is instructive that leaders who rode on the back of
faith now turn around to advise that it is of no significance where their
interests are at stake,” the forum said.
The forum asked Tinubu’s administration to respect the
rights of the legislature to operate independently and allow legislators a free
hand to choose their leaders.
“It is the
desperation to determine leaders of the legislature that is responsible for
damaging gaffes such as the nation just heard from our vice president and it
may not be the last damage that can be caused to our democracy and national cohesion,”
the forum added.
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Your comment is parallel with the saying of ALQUR'AN and your words are against the teachings of Islam. Just think about it
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