From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Against the backdrop of utterances considered not palatable coming from religious leaders, Chairman of Kaduna State Peace Commission (KAPECOM), Archbishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon, has said religious leaders must see themselves as instruments of unity, political preferences notwithstanding.
The bishop, who stated this when he interacted with journalists at the Commission office, advised against religious leaders seeing themselves as rulers, a situation he said was not helping the country in its democratic processes.
He admonished that Nigerians must be allowed to vote their choices regardless of religion and tribe, stressing that, “let candidates’ manifestoes and competence speak for them and not their religion or tribe. Religious leaders are part of the political problems we have in this country, some of them want to be rulers which is a wrong concept as it bringings about unnecessary sentiments.”
Archbishop Idowu-Fearon expressed the fear that the elections might be inconclusive in the first ballot because of politics of regional and tribal sentiments.
On agitation by the South East for the presidency, he said Nigeria is practising democracy which requires negotiation and not threat of any kind, adding that politics should not be seen as a do or die affairs.
“Insecurity and burning down of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in the South East will only end up drawing the region backward politically if not addressed holistically.”
Archbishop Idowu-Fearon accused leaders of the region of not doing enough to address the situation, hence it has lasted this long unabated.