PDP, APC in ‘war of words’ over use of religion

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the
opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, were
yesterday, locked in a war of words over use of
religion to achieve political goals.

While the PDP, which first threw the gauntlet that
the APC was shaped in Islamic fundamentalist robe
insisted on its claim yesterday and challenged the
opposition party to name its 35 interim officers.
The APC on its part said the use of religion by the
PDP was a new low for a party it claimed stands for
incompetence, looting and election rigging.
Reiterating its earlier accusation that the APC was a
party adorned in religious attire. The PDP in a
statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary,
Chief Olisa Metuh, thus dared the leading opposition
party to name its interim officials for the world to
know.
Metuh said “it is shocking that the APC would
attempt to hoodwink Nigerians even in the face of
incontrovertible facts exposing its religious
inclinations and plots to divide the nation along
religious lines.”
The PDP said contrary to the denials posted by the
APC in a hollow statement yesterday, “the
revelations by an Islamic cleric, Ambassador Yusuf
Garba and the Religious Equity Promotion Council,
REPC, that APC seeks to impose an agenda like the
Egypt Muslim Brotherhood remains a fact that
cannot be brushed aside.”
Counter to clams by the APC that the PDP was
playing a religious card to overheat the polity, the
ruling party said it decided to “buttress an alert to
Nigerians on the evil machination of the APC with
every sense of duty to ensure that Nigeria remains
united as one and not fall to the evil plot of the
APC.”
The ruling party reiterated that it “remains
committed to the interest of all Nigerians
irrespective of religious, tribal, ethnic or regional
affiliations” adding that it will continue to expose
and resist anything that seeks to cause divisions
among the people and balkanize the country.
“It therefore called on Nigerians not to succumb to
the antics of the APC which is now bitter that its
plans have been exposed, but to be alert and
ensure that the enemies of the nation are not
allowed to have their way.”
The APC in a sharp riposte articulated by its Interim
National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed
said: “this irresponsible accusation by the PDP that
the APC is dividing Nigerians along religious line is a
new low even for a party that stands for nothing but
incompetence, looting and election rigging. It is an
indication that the desperadoes in the PDP will
throw everything, including the kitchen sink, into
their campaign to stop the wave of change blowing
across Nigeria.’’
According to the party, the reason it has refrained
from joining issues with the PDP, despite its
sponsored campaign to portray the APC as an
‘Islamic party’, is because it knows the dangers
that religious politics portends for any nation that
brings religion into politics, and that no nation which
has descended into religious warfare has survived
intact.
The APC said no party wishing to lead Nigeria aright
can do so on the basis of religion or ethnicity.
Therefore, we are compelled to warn the PDP not to
play what it believes to be its trump card, the
religious card, against the APC, because whatever
politicians do, they must refrain from ethnic or
religious politics and put the country above selfish
considerations. Only an irresponsible party will play
the religious card for any reason.
“It alleged that even when President Goodluck
Jonathan decided to wear religion on his sleeve,
kneeling down before respectable religious leaders
and pushing the pictures into the media in an
apparent ploy to score political gains, the APC
refrained from making any comments on it.”
The party further alleged that when President
Jonathan also decided to lead a bloated delegation
of his cabinet to an extended pilgrimage in Israel
and ferret to the media back home the pictures of
the delegation members at the Wailing Wall and
other religious landmarks, the APC did not make an
issue of the glaring exhibitionism.
“The basis of our circumspection is that in the first
instance, we believe that all Nigerians are
constitutionally guaranteed their right to any faith of
their own, and that playing their religious card
should be avoided at all cost in the larger national
interest,’’ APC stated.
The party said it is neither logical nor rational to
accuse a party whose 35 interim officials are
almost equally split between the adherents of the
two major religions (18 Muslims and 17 Christians)
and cuts across all ethnic lines; a party whose
elected officials – Governors, Senators, House of
Representatives members etc – profess various
faith and a party that has never expressed any
preference for one religion over another as an
Islamic party.
“We are therefore warning the PDP to stop this
dangerous campaign forthwith, unless of course it
has decided that its interest supersedes that of the
nation. If the PDP fails to stop this campaign, we will
be compelled to conclude that the party (PDP) is
trying to plug in to the global stereotype against
adherents of a certain religion just to spread fear
and garner support in certain circles,” it said.
APC appealed to Nigerians to ignore the dangerous
game that the PDP is playing by labelling the APC an
“Islamic” party as a scaremongering tactic that the
comatose ruling party hopes will revive it.