Pastor Tunde Bakare, the Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, has urged Nigerians to prioritise nation building instead of ethnic or religious sentiment.
Speaking yesterday on APC’s decision to select Muslims as the presidential and vice presidential candidates of the party, Bakare said that “this is the time to show maturity in decision-making and to give every Nigerian a sense of belonging.”
Bakare, however, charged Christian leaders to approach the issue in question and the broader context of the 2023 elections with civility, clarity and with continued hope in the possibilities of a united Nigeria.
He said: “As standard-bearers of the message of the New Nigeria, we dream of a nation in which every Nigerian will be judged, not by their ethnicity, political leaning, regional affiliation or religious persuasion, but by the content of their character, as Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. once proclaimed in respect of his nation, the United States of America.
“We dream of a Nigeria where there will no longer be indigene or settler but only a Nigerian citizen. We dream of a Nigeria where state of residence will replace state of origin in our official forms and where zoning or Federal Character will become archival aspects of our journey into political maturity. We dream of a Nigeria in which every woman as well as every man will be able to aspire to any political office at any time without playing the ethnic card and without recourse to it’s our turn or it’s their turn.”
