Muslim-Muslim ticket: Kaduna CAN Disowns “Progressive Christian Clerics”
By Collins Mbakwe
The Progressive Christian Clerics, North-West zone, have been denounced by the Kaduna State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, who claim that no such organization exists.
The group also questioned Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate for the All Progressives Congress, about his desperation as he employs all available means to mislead Nigerians regarding the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the party ahead of the 2023 presidential election.
The CAN claims that the APC’s and its presidential candidate’s desperation is absurd. When speaking to reporters in Kaduna on Wednesday, the state’s CAN chairman, Rev. John Hayab, voiced alarm about a statement attributed to the so-called Progressive Christian Cleric, North-West Zone, which claimed that no such group existed.
The North-West Zone of the Progressive Christian Clerics is headed by Rev. Moses Bitrus of the Arise and Shine Prophetic Ministry.
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While urging other Christians in the area to back the Tinubu-Shettima ticket in the 2023 presidential election, Kaduna stated they have thrown their support behind the APC Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket.
The group asserted that it had members in all 19 Northern States as well as Abuja and said that Nigerians should be more concerned with electing leaders who can address security and economic issues than they should be with religious and ethnic feelings.
However, Hayab, who serves as Northern CAN’s vice chairman, distanced the organization from the collective. He asserted that the group’s members were nothing more than opportunists disguising themselves as a Christian organization, and that sincere Christian leaders would continue to speak out against such polarizing behaviour.
He continued by saying that the sudden appearance of an unidentified group promoting the Muslim-Muslim presidential candidate on the APC ticket just demonstrated how anxious the party was to win over Christians, regardless of the sincerity of those involved (group).
“I have spent my entire life in Kaduna, and as a Minister of the Gospel, I have had the opportunity to engage with and get to know the majority of the Pastors (clerics) in Kaduna,” Hayab added.
“It is unfortunate that the APC presidential candidates’ effort to persuade Nigerians that Christians in the nation support them will undoubtedly draw a non-existent set of people under the guise of Christians who will claim to support their campaign in order to take advantage of them.”I firmly felt that the APC would have consulted and supported the Christians in the presidential race while choosing the vice presidential candidate if the Christians were significant.
Hayab added that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) would never endorse anything that was not in the interests of Nigerians.
The Christian leader stated that CAN will continue to promote love, peace, and unity among its members, claiming that this was the best way to ensure that all Nigerians, regardless of their religious or ethnic backgrounds, lived in peace and harmony.
