CAN writes political parties on Nigeria’s diversity, hails successful primaries

From Fred Ezeh, Abuja

Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has written to all political parties in the country to register their non-acceptance of the plan to field candidates from same religion for the 2023 presidential elections.

CAN General Secretary, Joseph Daramola, who signed the letter recognised the exclusive right of political parties to choose their candidates for general elections as contained in the constitution and the electoral law.

He, however, said such rights call for deep sense of responsibility and accountability.

He said in exercising such rights, party members ought to be sensitive and promote the common good of the people, saying  good politics was about promoting the common good, and not promoting self-interest.

“As servants of God, our responsibility is to watch carefully, pray intensely and speak truth about the workings of constitutional arrangements. And as umbrella body of Christians in Nigeria, we call on all the presidential candidates to choose men or women of alternative religion as their running mates.

“CAN will not accept any presidential ticket that is Christian-Christian or Muslim- Muslim. This simply means that where the presidential candidate of the party is a Christian, the deputy should be a Muslim; and where the presidential candidate is a Muslim, the deputy should be a Christian.

“There should not be a situation where the presidential ticket of a political party in Nigeria, whether a major or minor party, will be two Christians as presidential candidate and running mate, or two Muslims as presidential candidate and running mate. We must try as much as possible to douse religious and ethnic tensions in the land. Anything short of a Christian-Muslim or Muslim-Christian ticket is an undisguised effort to nurture religious conflicts and destabilise the country.

“Whereas CAN is not a partisan organisation and does not involve itself with the process of partisan politics, it has a responsibility to defend the religious freedom of Nigerian citizens, whether Christians or not. CAN has a responsibility to speak out and mobilise civic action against threats to the unity, peace and security of the Nigerian state.

“We, therefore, give notice to all political parties that we will protect the religious diversity of the Nigerian state and will mobilise politically against any political party that sows the seed of religious conflict by presenting to Nigerians, a presidential ticket that is Muslim-Muslim or Christian-Christian. We will consider such action as a declaration of war against the freedom of religion, the peace and security of the Nigerian state. We will, equally, consider such insensitive action as evidence of a deliberate action to plunge the country further into religious violence and extremism and destroy the foundations of the continuation of the Nigerian state.

“As the presidential candidates prepare to nominate their running mates, we sound the note of warning, through this letter, that only a diversified presidential ticket will be acceptable to Nigeria in line with the constitutional requirement of power sharing and the responsibility of sensitivity to Nigeria’s deep religious diversity.”