It has again been stressed that the adoption of the same faith Presidential and Vice Presidential ticket by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is antithetical to Nigeria’s quest for nation-building.
The assertion was made by the immediate past Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt Hon Yakubu Dogara, while speaking on Tuesday, in Abuja, at a summit tagged ‘Meet the Church’ organised by the Nigerian National Christians Coalition (NNCC) with the theme; ‘The role of the Church in Nation Building’.
The former speaker also called on Christians to resist the temptation to waste their votes in the 2023 general elections as according to him, “Every Christian knows that our God does not tolerate waste. It is unchristian for the church to waste anything given to us from above as we own nothing except what is given to us from above.”
He, however, commended the Church in today’s Nigeria for “shaken off the beast of the complacency of the past into fire by speaking up and resisting measures adopted by some political platforms that will hamper nation building.”
He further argued that the APC ignored warnings by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Catholic Secretariate, ECWA Church and many other Church bodies and adopted the same faith ticket in a manner that negated the fundamentals of nation building.
He said that such as shared identity, values and vision saying, “the APC adopted the same faith ticket in a country that has never attained nationhood.”
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According to him, “These warnings were not only ignored but dismissed in one fell swoop by the APC presidential candidate who strangely believes that he can build a strong, secure and viable nation-state without first forging a shared identity, vision and values for our people thereby enabling us transit from citizens of a country into a nation of people with strong shared identity and values.”
Yakubu Dogara added that “In their convoluted posturing, they have placed state-building ahead of nation building; a task never before achieved in history and we need no seer to tell us that such endeavour is guaranteed to end in spectacular failure. No divided people have ever built any civilisation.”
He further said that “To demonstrate that the church is right, it is not alone in condemning the same faith ticket. Other prominent Islamic clerics and Muslim leaders have also spoken in the same light.”
“It is a good omen that both Christian and Muslim elites are not complacent over this matter. To this end, it will be easy to generate the needed elite consensus that is key to nation-building. All nations are built by elite consensus while all countries that failed at nation-building were destroyed by elite complacency,” he further said.
The former Speaker said that “Granted that the Christians and Muslims will always disagree on some issues, there are, however, many things over which we are agreeable. It is enough to forge ahead with the task of nation-building based on those common issues we agree on. It must be noted that just as Muslims alone cannot build a nation out of Nigeria so also Christians alone cannot. We have to work together on “nation formations.”
Drawing from the parable of the talents in the book of Matthew 25:14-30, Yakubu Dogara said that in one of Jesus’ most significant parables, Christians must “invest everything God gives us, not waste them” and not waste them.
He maintained that in 2023, every Christian must see their votes as talents given to them by God to trade with as seeds that must not be wasted.
He stressed that “We do not even have the liberty to preserve our vote just like the wicked and lazy servant did to his talent, we must cast the vote in a fertile ground i.e, the platform we know can win the election and nothing less or else. After all, is it in vain that it is said that Waste is worse than loss?”
He also asserted that a united, inclusive, peaceful and prosperous Nigeria is possible “If we go to work. We can start building that Nigeria of our dreams if we don’t waste our votes in the next election circle.”
The member representing Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa Federal Constituency added that “I need neither remind us that nation building is such a complex and complicated subject so much so that after 108 years of amalgamation and 62 years of independence, our attempt at nation building has been, to say the least, an unmitigated disaster.”
According to him, “While this is a subject matter that should be on the lips of all Nigerians, embarrassingly we busy ourselves with winning elections at all cost after which the power elites deploy institutional prerogatives with reckless abandon as if leadership is a zero-sum game. This of course, without any reference let alone commitment to nation building.”
“I am therefore comforted by the recognition by the NNCC that we interrogate at this summit, the role of the Church in Nation building. It is my considered opinion that it is important to address the fundamental thematic concepts briefly as we delve into the discuss,” he said.
He also said that “As stated earlier, nation building is a complicated subject and as such we do not have the time and luxury to interrogate the subject in detail. But the point has repeatedly been made that Nigeria is the greatest Islamo-Christian nation on earth.”
According to him, “As a result, it is difficult if not impossible to find any other nation that aggregates so many Muslims and so many Christians within its borders. Some of us live in communities comprising of persons of different faiths.”
“We equally have Muslim friends and confidants whom we can genuinely call brothers. Regardless of the tension that religion generates, resulting in occasional clashes and mayhem, we cannot deny the fact that there is an exceptional level of brotherhood and solidarity across people of all faiths in Nigeria,” Yakubu Dogara added.
He, however, lamented that “Unfortunately, Nigeria’s history is marked by disturbing anecdotes of series of ethno-religious violence that have profoundly stymied nation building. The point must be made that Nigeria cannot survive half addicted to rage and the other half addicted to delirium.”
He stressed that “That underpins why the Church must not abdicate its divine responsibility to achieve a better and more fully integrated life for our citizens across religious boundaries. For progress to be made, the church must fight for justice for the Christian, for the Muslim, for persons of other faiths and even for those who choose not to believe at all.
“As Christians, we don’t have to overemphasise the indivisibility of justice because what is justice for the Christian is justice for the Muslim and persons of other faiths,” he concluded.
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