Same Faith Ticket, A Trap, ECWA Tells Tinubu

General secretary (GS) of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) Rev Yunusa Nmadu Jnr said those who encouraged the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to run a Muslim-Muslim ticket have succeeded in plotting for him to fail in next year’s election.

Nmadu who said this while interacting with journalists in Kaduna further noted that Nigeria is already divided on religious grounds, adding that the same faith ticket being promoted by the ruling party is meant to further widen the gap.

He said, “Those who have lined Muslim-Muslim ticket whether at federal level or in Kaduna State, they have failed exam already, this is not in the interest of the Muslims neither is it in the interest of Christians, I will never support same faith ticket even if it is a Christian-Christian ticket where both faiths are almost equal.”

Nmadu however said, “There are some states that are predominantly Muslim, you cannot go there and ask for Muslim-Christian ticket, such case is understandable, there are some state that are predominantly Christian, you cannot go there and ask for Christian-Muslim ticket it is also understandable, but I don’t know how anybody in their political calculation will ever think that they will win election in Nigeria without the Christians or win election in Nigeria without the Muslims.”

According to Nmadu, who is also the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), Nigeria is so divided in the last seven years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration more than ever before and the gap has increased so wide, adding that, “it is expected that any government that is coming in now should emphasize unity and how to bring the people together, a same faith ticket by APC is dead on arrival because it is not in the interest of unity of our country.”

He said that those who are even pushing the candidate to do this do not even mean well for him, adding that it is because they want him to fail the election and that is why they are asking him to do that. “Like I said, a Muslim-Muslim ticket is divisive, it does not encourage cohesion and it does not bring the country together and what we need now more than ever before is national unity and we need whoever that will bring us together respecting everyone’s faith,” the cleric said.

Speaking on the recent impeachment threat against President Buhari by the Senate, he said, the problem with Nigeria is that the leaders do not see anything wrong until it affects them directly.

He said the insecurity is already affecting the senators but they are just waking up to reality too late, adding that, ” I think because it is touching them now and I don’t even see any seriousness in what they are saying, it has died out and these are the people that when they bark and throw bones as it were in the case of dog, you can make them to be silent, I don’t know what has happened, the fire is dying down, if it has not quenched completely.”

“They just got up because it has started affecting them and their relations and secondly because the election is near and they want to go back to their constituencies to win the election,” he said.