PDP: Tinubu Despised Body of Christ, Atiku is Pan-Nigerian

•Says APC presidential candidate can’t be trusted with power 

•Insists presidency not for selfish entitlement seeker

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council, has berated the APC presidential candidate, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, for allegedly despising the body of Christ and profaning the sacrament of communion.

The PDP, which said Tinubu besmirched the church, also stated that the presidential hopeful trivialised the existential threat that climate change poses to humanity.

In another development, one of the spokesperson of the Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation, Kola Ologbondiyan, has said Tinubu could not and should not be trusted with power as president, given his overtly exposed selfish motives.

Tinubu had Monday, during an interactive session with northern leaders in Kaduna State, likened the climate change crisis to the challenge of preventing “a church rat from eating a poisoned holy communion”, a metaphor, which some Christians, especially, the Catholic denomination, found offensive.

In the first statement by one of the presidential spokesperson, Dino Melaye, PDP said Tinubu fell out of tune with world leaders in ways that  betrayed  a lack of understanding of what the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Called the “Fierce Urgency of Now”.

According to Melaye, “Having overlooked Christians in his choice of a running mate, he further rubbed insult on injury by calling the Holy Communion into an unrelated conversation. It would have been honourable for Tinubu to simply admit that he didn’t know what climate change is.

“Again,  that exposed his limited understanding and poor preparation for governance. Any leader of any great nation, who does not understand the basics of climate change, especially, with the ongoing flooding in Nigeria and the economic conflict arising from farmers and herders, has no business aspiring to lead our dear country at this moment.

“Besides, Nigerians who have been in doubt about the presence of mind and the physiological capacity of Tinubu to preside over the affairs of Nigeria should now be convinced that he is not fit. For a moment, his thought processes tripped and he launched into another issue entirely.

“Nigerians could imagine if what happened in Kaduna, had happened on the world stage. As I said earlier, Nigerians cannot afford to gamble with the next election,” Melaye said, adding that an Atiku presidency would be at home with global issues anywhere and anytime.

Another spokesperson of the campaign council, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, has described Atiku as a pan-Nigerian leader and not an ethnic jingoist.

He said contrary to the comments trailing Atiku’s statement in Kaduna, the PDP standard bearer remained a Pan-Nigerian leader and a unifier, who had built bridges across the country.

Speaking on Arise TV, yesterday, Aniagwu remarked that Atiku’s comment was being misunderstood and quoted out of context, adding that the APC was lashing in on the comment, because they lacked what to talk about.

“Atiku is not a man given to ethnic jingoism and will never get involved in acts capable of dividing the country along ethnic, religion or regional lines. As a political party, the APC has done so badly that they don’t have issues to talk about so they will always want to cash in on anything that will take Nigerians away from the real issues.

“Atiku has built bridges across the country as a Pan-Nigerian and he advocated for a pan-Nigerian leader, who will be able to take a look at what the entire country needs. Atiku is one person that has respect for everybody irrespective of class and that is what is needed to deal with the issues bedeviling our country,” he said.

In another statement, Ologbondiyan asserted that from Tinubu’s persistent self-centered assertions, haughty claims, annexation and brazen entitlement messaging, which he further displayed during his interaction with stakeholders in Kaduna on Monday, it was clear that the APC Presidential Candidate was being driven by the lust to appropriate the nation as his personal estate and not for the national interest.

According to him, Nigerians watched with utter dismay as Tinubu, as usual, avoided questions and discussions on critical and imperative national issues, which confirmed that he was in the presidential race for reasons other than the wellbeing of Nigerians.

“The APC presidential candidate has not been forthcoming on issues of transparency, accountability and answerability in government, devolution of power, state police, federal character and other key issues that will enhance democratic tenets for the benefit of Nigerians, a development that further confirms a selfish intention against the inclusive interest of our nation.

“Perhaps this explains why the APC presidential candidate has not composed a campaign organization, a foretaste of exclusionist agenda. Even his proposed economic policies were generalised without addressing the specific problems of galloping inflation and its attendant unbearable rising costs, unemployment, high interest rates and the abysmally low purchasing power of Nigerians.

“Nigerians must, therefore, resist such tendencies as any government built on what the APC presidential candidate ostensibly represents will amount to creating a fiefdom for a self-conceited ruler over our nation. Never in our national history have Nigerians seen a politician with this level of self-entitlement.”