The presidential candidates of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, his Labour Party counterpart, Mr Peter Obi and the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) were guests at the interactive section organised by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).
CAN declared that it has neither endorsed any presidential candidate nor changed its earlier position on Muslim-Muslim ticket.
The association denied the allegation that it has agreed to backtrack on its position to take exception to same-faith presidential ticket in 2023.
This was made known by the CAN President, Archbishop Daniel Okoh, during an interaction with three out of the 18 presidential candidates of the PDP, LP and SDP in Abuja.
Barely a week ago, the leadership of CAN had a similar meeting with the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Tinubu.
The two separate meetings, convened at the instance of the national leadership of the apex Christian body, is neither an endorsement or campaign programme, but a platform for CAN to rub minds with presidential candidates on issues of concern to Christians in the country.
Archbishop Okoh said, “We have not changed our position (on same-faith ticket). If we want to change any position, we’ll let the Nigerian public know.
“And so, when people read insinuations, in the social media, I will advise that people come to come to verify, and to be sure that what you see out there is truly the position of the Christian Association of Nigeria.
“This year, Christian Association of Nigeria have decided to expand this interactive session to include the media and, and other leaders so that the conversation will be seen to be as open as possible, and that the people will see that there is no secret. There are no secret meeting and there is nothing hidden at all in any conversation.
“We gave two dates and we wrote to all the 18 presidential candidates and we invited all to interactive session on the 15th of November and 16th of November.”
Speaking at the event, Atiku accused Nigerians of being responsible for their own woes for voting the APC to power in 2015 which virtually failed to deliver in its promises to Nigerians.
According to Atiku, APC having plunged the country into the abyss of backwardness from 2015 till date, it is incumbent on the people to vote the party out and return PDP back to power to continue with the good work it started in 1999.
Atiku stated that for instance the APC administration promised to restructure the country but reneged in their promise.
“So you wanted a change in 2015 and you voted for the change. So it is your responsibility to vote for another change,” he said.
The PDP presidential candidate promised to boost the capacity of the police force, defend Nigerians of foreign policy, in defence and so on, wondering why citizens should be fighting over resources, when every section of the country is endowed with so much of them.
Atiku who maintained that he had schools from the kindergarten to the tertiary level, said he was committed to making graduates employable and said more that 60 pee cent of graduates from his university were employers of labour.
“I have schools from kindergarten to university. We are committed in our schools to making our graduates employable. More than 60 percent of our graduates are employers of labour.
“It all depends on the type of education you give to your kids. The PDP government had done unprecedented policies that will improve our education. We have citizens responsibility to demand accountability from those who manage our resources.
“We as PDP government introduced education tax. We also made policies that made it compulsory for every Nigerian child to have free education from primary to secondary school,” he said.
For the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, who reiterated his commitment to usher Nigeria into a production economy from its present status as a consuming nation, stated that the only group that would not be happy with him is the elite group.
Obi noted that during his eight year administration in Anambra state, the elite apparently were not happy for his refusal to share the state resources with them.
He, however, said that the majority of the Anambra citizens were happy with him because he never owed salaries, pensions or gratuities and did not owe any contractor in the state.
Obi reiterated that corruption and the culture of sharing would be tackled headlong, maintaining that Nigerians would be happy if he is elected as their president come 2023.
“Talking about the document, (CAN’s roadmap for Nigeria’s development), it’s a wonderful document. If we implement whatever is written here, there is nothing again to do.
“That brings me to what I have always said that Nigeria is not bereft of ideas, preaching solution. What is lacking is the institutional framework and the political will to do the right thing.
“We are 18 of us now applying for the job of the president, you the owners of the country have interviewed the rest of us and it is important to note that everybody’s story will be as sweet as the other one.
“You have to put your binoculars to check the sincerity and the truth and the one you can trust. It’s now who amongst these 18 can you trust, because there is no promise that has not bee made by the people in the past. That promise has always been there.
“All I want to do is to move the country from consumption to production. It is not a productive country. My priority is to secure and unite the country, it’s number one thing you need to do because
“I want to be given the opportunity to hire young energetic men and women and start solving these problems. I want to put our young people where we have so much energy and talent, I want to invest in them because they can change the world, that’s what I want.
“We don’t need to go back to where we are coming from. Like i have said before Datti and i, a young man, he shown it as an entrepreneur and everyday I tell him Datti, we must stop wealth without enterprise. We are going to stop corruption because corruption kills entrepreneur ship”, Obi said
The SDP presidential candidate Adewole Adebayo stated that his administration would carry out five programmes
“There are five programmes we will do and CAN will be at peace. One, just like we promised 30 years ago we will address poverty because as a person who comes from family of clergymen, I know that when people are hungry they go to the church, when people want to pay their children’s school fees, they go to the church, when people come and say my daughter is sick, pray for me, the church will not only pray for them, they tell them when they are going that they have even paid the medical bills.
“So I will give you a government that complies with chapter 2 of our constitution that uses the resources God has given to Nigeria to bless the people of Nigeria by investing in food security, in habitat, in education , in healthcare, in employment and infrastructure.
“However religious that leader is, even if he comes to take holy communion every morning, if he doesn’t spend the peoples money on this, he’s not serving God because these are the needs and Nigeria is one country that cannot be in doubt that the resources we are using come from God,” he said.
