Some Northern youths operating under the canopy of Coalition of Arewa Youths for Peace and National Development (CAYPND), have commended the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, on his initiative to undertake visits to both Muslim and Christian leaders as well as elder statesmen in the country.
Recall that the former Anambra State Governor had visited the founder of Living Faith Worldwide, Bishop David Oyedepo, on his 61th birthday, at the church’s Canaan Land headquarters in Ogun State, where he was said to have shared his vision for a new Nigeria with the renowned cleric.
Apart from the visit to Oyedepo who is a prominent clergy in Nigeria, records show that Obi also visited the chairman of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) and former Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, a few days back.
To underscore their position, the youths said Obi chose to visit Oyedepo on his birthday to seek wise counsel from the powerful Christian cleric, arguing that other politicians would have likely organized parties, and other ceremonies, where hundreds of millions of naira would have been spent on vanities.
Speaking with our reporter in Abuja on Thursday, the national president of CAYPND, Alhaji Mohammed Gwadabe, said that its support for the former Anambra governor, an Igbo man, was informed by demonstrable capacity to change the course of the Nigerian nation.
He said: “Apart from his deep knowledge of the Nigerian economy, coupled with his shrewd management of resources, we dare to say that Obi is a highly-detribalised Nigerian, who views the nation as one entity, with opportunities for growth in all the states of the Federation.
“Nigeria is so divided at the moment along all the known fault lines, and we think that Peter Obi, the amiable presidential candidate of LP, is the answer that we need to our challenges, which include insecurity, youth unemployment, poverty, nepotism among others.
“We have also been following – with keen interests – his ongoing consultations with both Muslim, and Christian leaders in the country, and we make bold to say that only a focused, detribalised politician would embark on such salutary outings. This is more so that it is happening at a time that mutual distrust, religious intolerance, and other tendencies, can easily be felt and touched by Nigerians.”
He added: “It is on record that so far, Obi has visited among several others, the General Overseer of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David Oyedepo, renowned scholar and chairman Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Prof. Ango Abdullahi, former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Gen Ibrahim Babangida who accorded him a warm reception.
“Even when the presidential candidate of another party had said that the Labour Party and its candidate will Labour in vain, Obi responded calmly by assuring that, ‘there is dignity in labour.’
“We, therefore, enjoin Peter Obi to sustain the momentum of his consultations across the divides, especially on religious leaders of the different faiths, as that will continue to endear him to his teeming supporters, who are determined to elect him as President come February, 2023.”
