THE APC AND THE DREAM THAT NEVER WAS, By #FEMI_FANI-KAYODE September 2014-09-28T06:22:38+00:00.
Ordinarily religion should not be brought into politics but sadly the
APC has done precisely that. They have introduced religion into politics
in a very irresponsible, divisive and dangerous manner and they are
using it as a political tool and as a means to capture power.
Those of you that are Christians and that are moderate Muslims that
believe in a secular state and that are still in the APC need to think
twice. It is like having black people as members of Ku Klux Klan.
It is like having Jews as members of Hitler’s Nazi party. It is like
having black South Africans as members of the apartheid-loving,
white-supremacist Boer Nationalist Party. It is like having Christians
and moderate Muslims as members of Al Qaeda, the Taliban and Al Shabab.
The difference between the APC and the PDP is that the former is a
party that will only field a Muslim Presidential candidate at every
point in time whilst the latter is quite capable of fielding either a
Christian or a Muslim Presidential candidate at any point in time.
The former is divisive whilst the latter is inclusive.
The former breeds and engenders a philosophy that is no different to
that which was espoused by the Boers in apartheid South Africa: a
philosophy that is established and enshrined on a platform of hate and
division and that prides itself on the boastful assertion that some
ethnic nationalities were ”born to rule” and that some faiths are more
equal than others.
The latter encourages religious harmony and
seeks to establish and build a plural society where adherents of all
faiths, all ethnic nationalities and all tribes are regarded as being
equal.
The PDP is for both Christians and Muslims and it believes
in racial integration, religious tolerance and ethnic harmony. The APC
is a Boko Haramite party that is for Muslim extremists only and a
handful of Christians who really don’t know what they have got
themselves into.
Such lost souls are in need of counselling.
They forget that the wise ones say ”woe be unto any believer that seeks
to join hands with others to bury Christ’s Church and to shame His
people and His gospel”.
One of the more credible leaders in the
APC is Sam Nda Isaiah, the Kakaki Nupe. He is the most formidable
columnist in Nigeria and the publisher of the influential Leadership
Newspaper. I know Sam very well and he is closer to me than a brother.
We may not agree on everything but there is no doubt in my mind that he
is a profoundly good man and a very serious-minded Christian. He is also
forthright, cerebal, courageous, decisive and very tough.
He has
Presidential ambitions and, in my view, if the APC had been a sensible
or serious-minded set of people they would have fielded Sam as their
candidate and paired him up with a muslim running mate from the South
West but this will never happen because the Haramites and islamic
fundamentalists in that party consider it to be ”their” platform.
Femi Aribisala made a very good point in his column in Premium Times
and the Sunday Vanguard Newspaper week when he wrote about the deep
wisdom there was in the APC fielding a northern Christian candidate for
next year’s Presidential elections if they really wished to get rid of
their muslim fundamentalist tag. I agree with him.
Yet sadly the
truth is that the APC will never allow a christian to be the candidate
of their party and, as one of its key leaders once said to me in very
plain and simple terms, such a thing would happen only over his ”dead
body”.
Expecting the APC to field a christian as its presidential
candidate is like expecting ISIS to declare the Pope as its leader. It
is like expecting Al Qaeda to declare the Archbishop of Canterbury as
its Supreme Commander. It is like expecting Al Shabab to declare Pastor
Enoch Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God as its Field
Marshall. It is like expecting the Al Nusra Front to declare Dr.Daniel
Olukoya of the Mountain Of Fire Ministries as its political facilitator.
It is like expecting Boko Haram to declare Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor of
the Word Of Life Bible Church and the President of the Christian
Association of Nigeria, as its life President.
It is like
expecting the Muslim Brotherhood, the Janjaweed, Daesh, Hamas, Islamic
Jihad, Khorasan and the Taliban to declare Bishop Mike Okonkwo, Pastor
William F. Kumuyi, Bishop David Oyedepo, Archbishop Nicholas
Duncan-Williams, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Rev. John Hagee, Rev. Creflo Dollar,
Dr. B.O. Ezekiel, Pastor Wale Adefarasin, Pastor Tony Rapu, Pastor Paul
Adefarasin and the late Archbishop Benson Idahosa as their spiritual
mentors and elder statesmen. Such a thing can never happen. Those that
think otherwise are simply naive.
Let me be very clear here. I
have nothing against Muslims. As a matter of fact I have nothing but
respect for all those real Muslims that believe in a secular state, that
believe in peaceful co-existence, that have no issues with those that
do not share their faith, that do not use violence and terror as a means
of effecting their purpose and that see religion as a purely personal
affair. Most of my Muslim friends fall into that category.
Such
is my liberal disposition when it comes to members of other faiths that
on 17th Jan. 2013 I actually tweeted that I believed that Nasir El
Rufai, the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and
Babatunde Fashola, the Governor of Lagos state would have made a
formidable combination as Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates
respectively for the opposition in 2015.
They are both Muslims
but I didn’t care simply because at that time the APC had not been
formed as a party and the opposition had no religious or Islamist
agenda. At that time they still harboured a certain level of decency,
respectability and sanity.
Sadly today, just under two years
after that suggestion was originally tweeted, the APC has not only been
formed but it has also transmuted into a political party that has
decided to use Islam as its primary tool of mobilisation and main source
of motivation. It also has strong links with Boko Haram.
I have
said it before and I will say it again: the APC is the political wing of
Boko Haram and Boko Haram is the military wing of the APC. The two are
soul mates. This is in the same way that Sinn Fein was the political
wing of the Irish Republican Army and the Irish Republican Army was the
military wing of Sinn Fein.
The suggestion that anyone should
support a party such as this, a party that has a clear and distinct
islamisation policy and agenda, a party that has strong covert links
with Boko Haram and a party that, at least up until very recently,
wished to field a Muslim/Muslim ticket is repugnant to me. It turns my
stomach, it vexes my spirit, it troubles my soul and it offends my
sensibilities. That is why I oppose such a party and such a single faith
ticket.
The truth is that if it ever got power the APC would use
it to islamise Nigeria, to humiliate and degrade Christians, to
marginalise moderate Muslims, to undermine and destroy the Church of
Christ and to implement a covert Boko Haram agenda. I have no apology to
anyone for taking this position because it is based on nothing but
truth. There is no doubt that there are quite a few people in the APC
that are not muslim fundamentalists.
Sadly though those people
are in a party that is infested with and in the control and power of
jihadists, religious zealots and islamist extremists. This is a party
that has defended Boko Haram on several occasions and whose supreme
leader and leading presidential aspirant has espoused, endorsed and
consistently enunciated some of the stated objectives, ideals and
philosophies of Boko Haram such as the spreading of sharia law all over
Nigeria, including down to the south.
Only an intellectually
challenged person or someone that is blind, naive, irresponsible and
shortsighted would support such a party. That is why I left them and
that is why I am committed to opposing and exposing them. They are
cult-like in all their ways, they are dangerous to the future, peace,
unity, stability and well-being of Nigeria and their intentions for this
country are absolutely evil.
It is my prayer that the few
moderate and more reasonable men and women within their ranks like Sam
Nda Isaiah, Kashim Ibrahim Imam, Kayode Fayemi, Lawal Shuaibu, Adams
Oshiomole, Rabiu Kwakwanso, Rauf Aregbesola, Tanko Al Makura, Atiku
Abubakar, Bukola Saraki, Hannatu Musawa, Sharon Ikeazor, Hadiza Usman
Yakubu, Joseph Waku, Audu Ogbeh, Ogbonaya Onu, Abiola Ajimobi, Ibikunle
Amosun, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, Joel Danlami Ikenya, Yusuf Tuggar and a
handful of others would simply find the courage to get up and leave in
the same way that Ali Modu Sheriff, Tom Ikimi, Ibrahim Shekarau,
Attahiru Bafarawa, Femi Lanlehin, Nuhu Ribadu, Buba Marwa, Marcus
Gundiri, Dele Belgore, yours truly and many others did a few weeks and
months ago. It is better late than never.
An El Rufai/Fashola
ticket is a dream that once was but sadly no longer exists. That dream
was shattered and destroyed by the obsessive ambitions of a tiny handful
of greedy and power-drunk men and the formation, metamorphosis and
tragic evolution of what was originally an attractive and respectable
political platform to a deeply divisive and divided political party that
is obsessed with religion, that has sympathy for terrorists and that
has troubling intentions for Nigeria. What a tragedy!
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