A former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal has urged Christian politicians in Northern Nigeria to remain steadfast in their stand for justice, equity and fair play.
While speaking against the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the All Progressives Congress, Babachir said neither Tinubu, Shettima or even APC has seen nothing wrong in their choice to make peace with or assuage the feelings of northern Christian politicians.
According to him the reality of their true intentions is not to give any roles to Northern Christians in their government.
In a Sunday statement titled “Why we are doing what we are doing,” the ex-SGF pleaded with Nigerians to understand the position of the Northern Christian politicians on the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the All Progressives Congress for the 2023 presidential election.
The statement read,
“We have so far not taken the road to reconciliation because, in the first instance, neither the APC as a party nor its presidential candidate has bothered to seek us out for reconciliation even though early on, our doors were left open for such.
“There are of course some ‘Christian’ turncoats and ‘Judases’ who, driven either by moral turpitude, poverty or greed, have hired themselves out as agents and spoilers of this noble Christian cause.
“To this group, I wish to recommend the study of the biographies of Judas Iscariot and Ahithophel in the Bible. Be careful to note how their lives ended.
“It seems that Tinubu/Shettima’s preferred approach is to attempt to counter our position through insults and sponsored fake Christian organisations to create the impression that there is a division within the Christendom on this matter.”
“This approach has also portrayed the duo as arrogant and pitiable people whilst also exposing them to the public as people with unimaginable deficiencies of noble character,” he added.
“The reality is that, for each minute that this same-faith ticket duo have spent on their goebellsian propaganda, they have ended up spending several hours more trying to rebut the controversies that they themselves create in the process”, he added.
He stressed that, “Everyone, including some notable Christian haters, are now inviting false “Bishops” and “CAN” Leaders to meetings.
“They are busy fabricating overnight “Christian” organizations that churn out falsehood to the public.
“It is such a pity that people who intend to lead our country could descend to such low levels of morality and deficiency of conscience”.
Babachir Lawal however said that, “But belying this posture is the reality of their true intentions not to have any roles for Northern Christians in their government.
“The unarguable fact is that they intend to offer nothing of significance to any Northern Christian in an APC government anticipated to be led by Bola and Kashim”.
He stressed that, “The reality of their zoning arrangement is that the North East subregion is already out of the equation for any other posts because it has the Vice Presidency while the North Central too is out because they have the party’s National Chairmanship”.
The former SGF analyzed that, “The other key positions, The Senate President, the Speaker, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chief of Staff to the President have been zoned to the North-West, South-South, South-East and South-West regions respectively”.
He further posited that, “Besides, we all know that there is and will be no ranking Christian Senator or House of Representatives member from the North-West that could occupy the seats of Senate President, Speaker or even their Deputies.
“In any case, it is an open secret that they never allow Christians to occupy such positions in the North-West Zone even if there is a qualified Christian”.
He asked, “Who then do they think they are fooling with this their “there are other positions in government that could go to the Northern Christians” mantra?
Babachir Lawal stressed that “If Kashim Shetima worked determinedly with Bola Tinubu’s acquiescence to deny the Northern Christians the Deputy National Chairman (North) position during the party’s National Convention, what magic will then compel them to give a Northern Christian any significant posts in their government?
“Let us make no mistake about it; these guys will persecute us to no end. They are very well practised in this”.
“And, broken they will be indeed.
“We noticed this trend in APC right from its registration in 2014 up to the 2022 convention, where the overriding goal seemed to have been to exclude northern Christians from all the organs of the party.
