A Christian and a member of the All Progressive Congress, Mr. Femi Fani Kayode has said that the party may be heading towards being viewed as a religious cult if it decided to field a Muslim/Muslim ticket for the 2015 Presidential elections.
He said, “Presenting a Muslim/Muslim ticket for the 2015 presidential election no matter how cleverly rationalised, defended or justified in the pursuit of an ideal or in the name of political correctness, will be a terrible insult to the 80 million Christians that are part and parcel of this country and it will result in their voting, en masse, for another party.”
Speaking to reporters with Punch publication, he said that the APC should not sacrifice Christians on the alter of political expediency.
He charged, “Any party that seeks to do that ceases to be a political party and can be better described as a religious cult and no Christian worth his salt can or will ever be a member of such a cult. I will not be a party to such and I will leave if they are not comfortable with the truth.”
Another Christian member of the APC said, “The APC might lose in the South-West, where the votes of Muslims and Christians are almost 50-50. Yoruba Christians will not support such a thing no matter what. The electorate in the South-East, the South-South and Christians in the North-Central would not support a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
“The PDP would attract all these people and President Goodluck Jonathan will come back. They think they can use religion to defeat Jonathan but every Christian will leave the APC.”
Another APC chieftain, Nasir El Rufai had earlier stated that the APC would select its candidates based on merit and not religious sentiment.
El-Rufai said, “The APC will present to Nigerians the best persons with the integrity, capacity and competence to create jobs, fight corruption and rebuild our nation without discrimination.
“How these persons worship the Almighty God is private to them and does not matter to discerning Nigerians, particularly young people that suffer most from bad governance, unemployment and the Jonathanian culture of impunity.”
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