*Photo: Fani-Kayode*
Former Aviation Minister and Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, on Tuesday, said that for supporting Sen. Bola Tinubu and Kassim Shettima presidential ticket in the 2023 election did not make them any less Christian than others.
Fani-Kayode, stated this on his twitter handle in response to a comment credited to the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, during his telephone conversation with Bishop David Oyedepo of the Living Faith Church prior to the presidential poll.
Obi was quoted to have said the that election “is a religious war.”
Reacting, the ex-minister said: “It is now left for the reverred and respected leaders of the Body of Christ to disavow themselves of the hideous “religious war” agenda of Peter Obi and publicly disassociate themselves from his villainous, venal, venomous, vile and evil agenda.
“If they choose to get involved in politics they must be discerning, reasonable, fair, impartial, wise and balanced and they must stop being partisan and condemning others for their choices.
“They must also accept the fact that simply because millions of us supported a Muslim/Muslim ticket does not make us any less Christian than others.
“This is especially so when the majority of those others were as silent as church mice when it matttered the most and when Christians were being butchered, slaughtered and persecuted all over the country.
“Unlike some of us they said and did nothing when this was going on and they refused to speak truth to power.
“Yet now they claim to be fighting a religious war by supporting a cheap, third-rate conman and petty trader that can best be described as a dangerous and delusional tribalist, an irredeemable and habitual fraud and an unrepentant, unlettered and provincial religious bigot.
“We did not risk our lives and fight Islamic fundamentalism in this country to replace it with Christian fundamentalism. Two wrongs do not make a right.
“Religious bigotry, whether Muslim or Christian, must be rejected and condemned by all.
“We must never allow sectarian and religious considerations to determine our politics or the choices we make in terms of leadership.
“Before being Christians or Muslims we are Nigerians and we are all proud sons and daughters of the greatest, most unique, most versatile, most blessed, most beautiful and most dynamic multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural nation on earth.
“We will not let a man like Peter Obi, who is nothing more than the Christian version of Osama Bin Ladin and the Nigerian version of Joseph Kony to destroy our country or spark off a second civil war with his vengeful, unforgiving spirit and his hatred for non-Christians, non-Igbos and those that do not share his warped, antedeluvian and opaique world view.
“The peace, unity, progress and prosperity of Nigeria is our first priority and every leader and politician worth his salt must and will engender and defend that priority with his life if necessary.
“Our strength lies in our ethnic and religious diversity and if you want to lead this country you must be prepared to build genuine bridges of love, understanding, compassion, sensitivity, camaradie and fraternity between all of its ethnic nationalities and religious faiths.
“Nigeria does not belong to Christians or Muslims and neither does she belong to one ethnic group or the other: she belongs to us all.”