Christian Association of Nigeria chieftain urges Lalong to reject offer to be Tinubu's campaign chief

GOVERNOR Simon Lalong of Plateau State has been advised to reject the offer of serving as the director-general of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) as it would amount to e betrayal of his Christian faith.

Former Lagos State governor Asiwaju Tinubu, emerged as the APC presidential candidate after coasting home in a landslide victory following the party's convention in Abuja. Following his victory, he laboured to select a running mate after publicly declaring that he will pick a Christian from the northeast geo-political zone as his deputy but the process appeared fraught with difficulty.

Last month, however, after weeks of prevarication, Asiwaju Tinubu, himself a Muslim, ended up selecting a fellow Muslim in former Borno State governor Senator Kashim Shettima as his running mate. His choice has polarised the country as the Christian faithful feel highly marginalised and already, several senior party members have left the APC over the matter.

Stunned by the anger the decision has created, APC governors met with Asiwaju Tinubu in Lagos last week to review the structure of the party’s PCC. Among the decisions the governors considered was appointing Governor Lalong as the PCC director-general in a bid to appease northern Christians who are particularly incensed about its Muslim-Muslim ticket.

However, Daniel Kadzai, a former national president of the youth wing of the Christian Association of Nigeria and the co-chairman of Interfaith Coalition Conference, said it would amount to a betrayal of his Christian faith if Governor Lalong accepts the offer. He asked why Governor Lalong should belittle himself to accept the appointment to campaign for a party and a presidential candidate who rated him as incompetent to stand as a presidential running mate.

Mr Kadzai said: “When a political party is pushing candidates of the same faith on the basis that they’re using it as a strategy to win elections, then you should know that this party is trying to divide the country. And in a fragile nation like Nigeria where trust has long evaporated, where are we headed?

"We’re talking about agitations here and there and you’re now flying a Muslim-Muslim ticket. We have condemned this and we’re celebrating our Christian brothers, who out of solidarity with their fellow Christians, dumped the APC over its Muslim-Muslim ticket.

“We are calling on more Christians to leave that party, leave the party and look for an alternative. Lalong should sit up. If they cannot find him competent enough to be the vice president that we have agitated and called for, there’s no need for him to come in as the director-general of Tinubu’s campaign. Monkey they work, bamboo dey chop.

“He’ll now campaign for them to get our votes? We are passing this soft message to Lalong. In the interest of his faith, he should decline and let them go and look for one faithful northerner who’ll be their campaign director-general.

“Not Lalong because we’ll not allow him to hold meetings with any of our leaders. We’ll not allow Lalong to come near our churches to campaign because they have relegated us for long and they’ve told the whole world that we don’t have competent people."