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Former Speaker, Yakubu Dogara
By Akanji Alowolodu, Bauchi
As controversy continues to trail the adoption of same faith Presidential and Vice Presidential ticket by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) which has polarized the country, it has been opined that no people divided have ever built civilization and a virile nation.
The assertion was made by the immediate past Speaker of the House of Representatives, Barr Yakubu Dogara when he spoke on Tuesday, in Abuja at a submit tagged ‘Meet the Church’ organized by the Nigerian National Christians Coalition (NNCC) with the theme; ‘The role of the Church in Nation Building’.
He stared that, “I need neither remind us that nation building is such a complex and complicated subject so much so that after 108 years of amalgamation and 62 years of independence, our attempt at nation building has been, to say the least, an unmitigated disaster” .
According to him, “While this is a subject matter that should be on the lips of all Nigerians, embarrassingly we busy ourselves with winning elections at all cost after which the power elites deploy institutional prerogatives with reckless abandon as if leadership is a zero-sum game. This of course, without any reference let alone commitment to nation building”.
He added that, “I am therefore comforted by the recognition by the NNCC that we interrogate at this summit, the role of the Church in Nation building. It is my considered opinion that it is important to address the fundamental thematic concepts briefly as we delve into the discuss”.
On the APC’s Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket of Tinubu-Shettima, Yakubu Dogara declared that, “It is antithetical to Nigeria’s quest for nation building” .
The former Speaker also called on Christians to resist the temptation to waste their votes in the 2023 general elections as according to him, “Every Christian knows that our God does not tolerate waste. It is unchristian for the church to waste anything given to us from above as we own nothing except what is giving to us from above.”
He commended the Church in today’s Nigeria for “shaken off the beast of complacency of the past into fire by speaking up and resisting measures adopted by some political platforms that will hamper nation building.”
He then argued that the APC ignored warnings by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Catholic Secretariate, ECWA church and many other church bodies and adopted the same faith ticket in a manner that negated the fundamentals of nation building, such as shared identity, values and vision saying, “the APC adopted a same faith ticket in a country that has never attained nationhood.”
Yakubu Dogara stressed that, “These warnings were not only ignored but dismissed in one fell swoop by the APC presidential candidate who strangely believes that he can build a strong, secure and viable nation-state without first forging a shared identity, vision and values for our people thereby enabling us transit from citizens of a country into a nation of people with strong shared identity and values.”
He also said that, “In their convoluted posturing, they have placed state – building ahead of nation building; a task never before achieved in history and we need no seer to tell us that such endeavor is guaranteed to end in spectacular failure. No divided people have ever built any civilization.”
“To demonstrate that the church is right, it is not alone in condemning the same faith ticket. Other prominent Islamic clerics and Muslim leaders have also spoken in the same light. It is a good omen that both Christian and Muslim elites are not complacent over this matter”, he added.
The former Speaker further said that, “To this end it will be easy to generate the needed elite consensus that is key to nation building. All nations are built by elite consensus while all countries that failed at nation building were destroyed by elite complacency.”
“Granted that the Christians and Muslims will always disagree on some issues, there are however, many things over which we are agreeable. It is enough to forge ahead with the task of nation building based on those common issues we agree on. It must be noted that just as Muslims alone cannot built a nation out of Nigeria so also Christians alone cannot. We have to work together on “nation formations”, he stressed.
He assented further that, “It is a sin for Christians to waste their votes in 2023, drawing from the parable of the talents in the book of Matthew 25:14-30 and said that in one of Jesus’ most significant parables, Christians must “invest everything God gives us, not waste them” and not waste them.
He maintained that in 2023, every Christian must their votes as talents given to them by God to trade with as seeds that must not be wasted.
According to Yakubu Dogara, “We do not even have the liberty to preserve our vote just like the wicked and lazy servant did to his talent, we must cast the vote in a fertile ground i.e, the platform we know can win the election and nothing less or else. After all, is it in vain that it is said that Waste is worse than loss?”
He asserted that a united, inclusive, peaceful and prosperous Nigeria is possible “If we go to work. We can start building that Nigeria of our dreams if we don’t waste our votes in the next election circle.”
