The Northern Elders Forum NEF has asked the Nigerian presidency to allow the members of the National Assembly to choose their leaders without interference and eschew religious sentiments being bandied about.
The Forum spoke in reaction to the statement credited to Vice President Kashim Shettima with regards to the suitability of Abdull-azeez Yari and Godswill Akpabio.
Briefing the media in Kaduna, the Director, Publicity and Advocacy of the Northern Elders Forum, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed said the forum has cautioned the President Tinubu administration on many occasions to respect the rights and privileges of elected members of the Legislature to choose their leaders, and to conduct its campaign for its preferences with sensitivity and decorum.
The statement of Vice President Kashim Shettima he said, in the context of the commitment of the administration to determine the legislatures leadership makes references to Muslim and Christian faiths in the most unbecoming and irresponsible manner imaginable.
The nation has been made aware of comments made by His Excellency, Senator Kashim Shettima, Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in the course of strengthening the cause for election of leaders of the 10th Assembly which the APC and the government prefers. A particularly outstanding comment made by him is that under current dispensation, the worst, the most incompetent Southern Christian is better than the most puritanical Northern Muslim for the Presidency of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Northern Elders Forum has cautioned the President Tinubu administration on many occasions to respect the rights and privileges of elected members of the Legislature to choose their leaders, and to conduct its campaign for its preferences with sensitivity and decorum. The statement of Vice President Shettima in the context of the commitment of the administration to determine the legislatures leadership makes references to Muslim and Christian faiths in the most unbecoming and irresponsible manner imaginable. It deepens the worrying position of religious faith as a fault line in our politics today, and denigrates the place of an important value such as faith in conduct of elected leaders, whether they are Muslims or Christians. The suggestion that poor faith and incompetence can be preferred to piety and competence when it suits political interests sends damaging signals to a nation desperate for good leadership.
Forum said a statement of that nature coming from a Northern Muslim who has earned his respect in the course of his political career is most unfortunate. It said the suggestion that the piety of leaders could be sacrificed for political exigencies offends a nation of Christians and Muslims who watch as leaders swear by the Quran and the Bible to protect the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Vice President has done himself, his faith and his standing a great injury with his comments, and the Forum hopes he can find appropriate opportunities to assure Nigerians that the Tinubu administration will respect sensitive values that define us as Nigerians.It is important that Nigerians discard the notion that the quality of our faith has no place in deciding those who lead us.It is instructive that leaders who rode on the back of faith now turn around to advise that it is of no significance where their interests are at stake.
The Forum advises the Tinubu administration to respect the rights of the legislature to operate as prescribed in the constitution, and allow legislators a free hand to choose their leaders.
It is the desperation to determine leaders of the legislature that is responsible for damaging gaffes such as the nation just heard from our Vice President, and it may not be the last damage that can be caused to our democracy and national cohesion the statement concluded.
Vice President Kashim Shettima was heard in a video during the senate valedictory session while talking to colleagues to have asserted that the worst, the most incompetent Southern Christian is better than the most puritanical Northern Muslim for the Presidency of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
This has been taken out of context and being misinterpreted causing tension in some quarters
