The spokesperson of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Hakeem Baba-Ahmed says “ordinary” Nigerians no longer care about the religious background of their political leaders.
Gatekeepers News reports that Baba-Ahmed spoke during an interview on Channels Television.
Over the past few days, there have been concerns and arguments over the religious background of the presidential candidates and their intended running mates.
Since the two major political parties — All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) — have Muslim presidential candidates, many people, including the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), have asked that their running mates should be Christians.
Asked to react to the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket debate, the NEF spokesperson said religion is a tool deployed by politicians to get power in 2023, adding that the religious beliefs of elected leaders have not benefited Nigerians.
“I think there is a lot of deception here which has gathered momentum as politicians began to learn more and more about the weaknesses of ordinary Nigerians. 90 percent of us as ordinary Nigerians are devout Christians and Muslims. We care very deeply about personal faith. We care about the fortunes of our faith. We don’t like to be attacked or affected because we are Christians or Muslims,” he said.
“By and large, in most instances, our faith is faith. Politicians use faith and other forms of identity politics to wrestle for power. This is basically what is it and it is becoming clearer that every time politics come, religion surfaces as a factor and what it does is that it created this idea that Nigerians would fight because the vice-president is not a Christian or a Muslim.
