As CAN Grills Tinubu, Atiku, Obi, Adebayo…

The leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria recently interfaced with presidential candidates of All Progressives Congress, Peoples Democratic Party, Labour Party and Social Democratic Party. The meeting turned out to be an interesting, mind-rubbing opportunity for the Christian leaders to hear the candidates unveil their agenda and  respond to the strong positions of CAN on national issues. Onyebuchi Ezigbo reports

Four presidential candidates namely Asiwaju Bola  Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC),  Atiku Abubakar of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP), and Adewole Adebayo of Social Democratic Party (SDP) recently held court on different days with the leadership of CAN.

The meetings discussed extensively issues, such as same faith candidacy,  restructuring, economy, and security, among others.

President of CAN, Most Rev.  Daniel Okoh said the interaction was to collectively review the understanding of the Nigerian crisis of development and governance and to seek a lasting solution to them.

Okoh said CAN had consulted widely with Nigerians of diverse religious, ethnic and social identities on the problems of Nigeria and had come up with position on how most the contentious issues could be resolved.

The solutions to the problems have been articulated in the association’s strategic document called: “Charter for Future Nigeria’’.

“The Charter begins with a diagnosis of Nigeria’s problem and locates it primarily in an incoherent Constitutional and institutional framework that defines governance and social and economic interactions.

“In this interaction, we will present the highpoints of this strategic document and listen to your response to the issues they raise,’’ he said.

According to him, CAN’s interest is that all candidates should clearly understand the concerns of Nigerian Christians and propose policies and programmes to address those concerns.

“We believe that with this kind of respectful and sincere conversation we will find lasting solutions to these crises.

It was as if CAN had set up a panel to quiz the politicians on their agenda and issues of nation building. The association had it’s template well established. 

APC’s Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu

Tinubu’s appearance at the CAN forum was dominated with issues relating to his choice of a Muslim Vice Presidential candidate against the agitation by the Christian body.  As soon as the CAN president finished his introductory speech, the document containing concerns of Christians were read out, prominent among which was the issue of secularity on the country and the need to protect that interest by political parties seeking power.

Understanding the direction of the minds of the Christian leaders seated at the hall, Tinubu went straight to address his Muslim-Muslim ticket palaver by allaying fears over his same-faith ticket and told the CAN leadership that his decision to vie for the nation’s top job was in line with the country’s constitution.

Tinubu said: “ I seek to become Nigerian president not on religious grounds but on the Constitution. Thanks to the body for the invitation to candidates to speak of their plans for the nation”.

Laying the template for his discussion with CAN, the APC standard bearer said, “I did not choose Senator Shettima so that we could form a same faith ticket. The ticket was constructed as a same progressive and people-based ideology ticket.

“I offer a confession. I selected Senator Shettima thinking more about who would best help me govern. Picking a Christian running mate would have been politically easier. But the easy way is rarely the right one. The selection of a running mate is at once a very momentous yet very intimate decision.”

Lashing out at his critics, especially, those from his party, who were against his choice of Muslim-Muslim ticket, Tinubu said some of them lobbied profusely for the vice presidential position but were rejected by him.

While seeking to address the fears of Christians regarding threats to Nigeria’s secularity by the APC presidency, Tinubu said both his family background and track record as governor could bail him out as someone, who was not biased.

He stated, “As governor of Lagos, I partnered with the Christians to improve lives and foster education. For instance, I returned mission schools to their owners, most of who are Christians. I instituted yearly Christian Denomination Service at the governor’s residence as we approached the New Year. This tradition continues in Lagos.

“I believe in the need for a secular government and for us to work in the interest of the country just as I did in Lagos State by returning the missionary schools to the rightful owners.

“I never chased people out of Lagos. My choice of Shettima is borne out of the urgent need to address the challenges facing the country as Shettima possesses strong leadership abilities which he exhibited when he was the governor of Borno State. I wanted a progressive government that was why I selected Shettima.

“Choosing a Christian running mate would have been easy but that is not the case. We have urgent challenges that do not depend on religious leanings but on the best of hands that can address it.”

Tinubu who was flanked by his wife, Senator OluremiTinubu, tried not to allow the issue of same faith ticket to overshadow his other plans to rebuild Nigeria. As he said that the record he set in Lagos is there for everyone to see how he turned around the fortunes of the state. The Jagaban as he was called out by supporters promised to tackle the  challenges facing the country such as insecurity, economy and poverty. He pledged to always carry all segments of the country along including CAN if elected president in the next year’s election.

PDP’s AtikuAbubakar

While responding to concerns raised by the apex Christian body, the PDP presidential candidate,  AtikuAbubakar, who was the first to engage with the CAN leadership at the secretariat of the association in Abuja, said most of the issues contained in the CAN Charter of demands for a new and equitable Nigeria, were in tandem with policies he was committed to implementing if elected president of Nigeria next year.

The former vice president said his administration would tackle insecurity by increasing the size of the Nigeria Police and equipping them with the right tools of work.

According to him: “As the only practical way of dealing with it before you go to constitutional reform, when, let’s say, you bring half a million unemployed young men into the police, train them well, equip them well, that is bound to have an impact as far as this insecurity atmosphere is concerned. Then you go to the constitutional amendment, because you cannot have state police unless you have a constitutional amendment.

‘So, we’ll go into a constitutional amendment, where we will have different levels of police, if they like, state police, in the local government policy, if they like city police, whatever they like. And then we believe that in the United States, you have about three to four levels of police in some states. These are our plans to deal with the security challenges now facing our country.”

On restructuring, Atiku said the PDP government under him would deliver on restructuring for Nigerians if voted into office.

According to him, “There is a difference between the government that ran this country from 1999 to 2015 and the government that has been running this country since 2015 to date. They promised restructuring, but did they restructure? They told Nigerians what Nigerians wanted to hear, and did a different thing, when they got the opportunity. PDP never behaved like that”.

Another constitutional issue that Atiku promised to address was indigeneship, which he promised to ensure its removal from the constitution.

He said, “I am in support of the removal of the provision of indigeneship in our constitution. Once you reside in any part of this country, and you pay your taxes, you should be entitled to indigenisation.

“In fact, I don’t want to hear these indigeneship thing; I don’t want to hear the word, but I know so many other sub-nationalities are also opposed to it. But then, the majority will have their way and the minorities will have their say, when it comes to constitutional amendments”. 

Atiku spoke about his plans to ‘Recover Nigeria’ especially with regards to “restructuring the country and reforming the Police and judiciary.

 He added that his policy prescriptions to Nigeria appears to greatly align with the demands of the association.

“We all agree that there’s the need to have a restructured Nigeria that will be more inclusive and more secure with greater opportunities for citizens to fulfil their interests irrespective of tribe, tongue or mode of worship.

“Above all, I stressed the inevitability of CHANGING the CHANGE that has, in the past seven years plus, led us to a socio-economic and political cul de sac.

“I thank the National Executive Committee of CAN for the opportunity to share my thoughts with them on the pathway to a New Nigeria. I look forward to other engagements with other critical stakeholders in the country in our quest to recover Nigeria.”

LP’s Peter Obi

Peter Obi got a warm welcome as he made his way to the CAN Secretariat that afternoon with everyone eagerly expecting to hear from him on his plans to tackle the enormous challenges facing Nigeria. As usual, Obi came with a few of his campaign officials unlike others who were accompanied by a litany of party stalwarts aides and supporters,.

Obi came with about four officials of his campaign team but was later joined by the Labour Party’s National Chairman, Julius Abure.

When presented with the charter of demands by CAN, Obi said  among the areas he will give priority if elected president, would be to secure, unite, and rebuild the country from the current security challenges and economic difficulties.

He also promised to ensure that he returned the country from a mere consuming nation to a productive country.

The former Anambra state governor  spoke a lot about challenges facing  Nigeria, such as unemployment, poverty, insecurity, drug abuse and assured that all of them can be addressed by prioritising the productive sector of the economy.

“We must secure and unite the country. When you secure the country, you are able to bring farmers to return to the farm. That alone will start addressing food inflation.

“By moving the country from consumption to production you are moving people away from poverty. The more you pull people out of poverty, the more you address criminality.

“Nigeria now has 13.8 percent drug prevalence against the global average of 5 percent. To deal with that crisis is production. We need to feed ourselves,’’ he said.

Obi expressed satisfaction with the content of CAN Charter for the future of Nigeria, saying if any administration implements them, most of Nigeria’s problems would be a thing of the past.

According to LP presidential candidate,  unity and security were needed to address problems bedevilling the nation, including, creating jobs and refocusing Nigeria from consumption to productive economy.

Discussing the way forward, Obi said the challenges of Nigeria, such as unemployment, drug abuse and others could be addressed by prioritising the productive sector of the economy.

He said: “We must secure and unite the country. When you secure the country, you are able to bring farmers to return to the farm. That alone will start addressing food inflation.

“By moving the country from consumption to production you are moving people away from poverty. The more you pull people out of poverty, the more you address criminality. Nigeria now has 13.8 percent drug prevalence against the global average of 5 percent. To deal with that crisis is production. We need to feed ourselves’.

Obi like the other two candidates, Atiku and Tinubu who met with CAN commended the leadership of CAN for taking time to produce the document that addresses the challenges of the country.

He told his audience  that Nigeria was not short of ideas to bring solution to anything, but what was lacking was institutional framework and political will to implement the ideas.

He threw back the challenge to the leadership of CAN and Nigerians to look at the antecedents of the 18 presidential candidates on the ballot before casting their votes in 2023.

Being a Christian one had expected Obi to leverage on the gathering of the Christian leaders to seek for special support but he rather told them that voting should not be done by religion or by tribe, but by the capacity of the candidates to address prevailing challenges.

According to him: “Next year’s election should not be based on tribe. If it is by tribe the north would have been safer and be more developed. Yes, we must all respect the issue of religion, but even at that, we should not follow people blindly because of religion.

“We cannot use the process of yesterday or those who did not solve it yesterday for tomorrow”.

On insecurity, Obi assured that if elected, he would be in-charge of the country with the required energy and mental requirements.

He also pledged  to address the ailing economy,  increasing debt profile of the country as well as engage youths in addressing the problems of Nigeria.

“The job of Nigerian president requires physical and mental energy. I will make sure that Nigeria works. In our country people don’t do what is expected, they do what is inspected. I will be there.

 “I want to hire energetic men and women to start solving these problems. I want to pull young people with so much energy and talents. I want to invest in them because they can change the world. That is what I want. I believe I can solve these problems”.

Fighting  corruption was on priority list of Obi and he promised to ensure that stealing of oil money and indeed all other revenue sources is ended.

He also pledged to make the education sector  work.

“I am not going to give excuses. The work of a leader is not to give excuses. I am not going to complain. It is not the job of a leader. I am not going to complain of the past. You are hiring for the future and I am going to be for the future”.

Speaking on the power crisis facing Nigeria, Obi said he would tackle it frontally and would fix the problem with generation and transmission by targeting investment in those critical areas.

He stated that countries, like Egypt, found out that their major problem was power supply and decided to deal with it.

Wondering why South Africa, with far more power generating capacity, could declare emergency in the power sector and Nigeria, with just 5,000 megawatts for a population of over 200 million, had not, Obi said he would declare war on the problem of power generation and transmission in Nigeria.

“If you decentralise and work on the transmission, you would be able to as quickly as possible transmit and distribute to meet the installed capacity of the electricity companies by supporting them, the original companies, with right access to funds and dedicated gas supply facility,” he said.

The LP presidential candidate also said his administration would harness other sources of electricity available in the country in a holistic manner to ensure that the country met its immediate power needs.

Obi, who, characteristically, quoted several statistics on economy and development, said he would turnaround the fortunes of the country, using agriculture, investment in medium, small scale enterprises, and power as major plank.

SDP’s Adewole Adebayo

Adebayo of SDP said the CAN roadmap was timely, coming at a time the country was preparing to elect a new crop of leaders.

He promised to discourage certain unconstitutional actions, such as denial of churches and mosques right to certificate of occupancy for their buildings and places of worship.

The SDP flag bearer said most of the ideas enunciated in the CAN charter is in tandem with the manifesto of SDP.