• Developmental issues may be ignored
BARELY two years away, issues of religion and indigeneship are already influencing the race to Alausa, the seat of governmental power in Lagos State.
Pointedly, issues of development may be relegated to the background, as the Christian community, and indigenes move to choose the chief executive of the state from among themselves.
The zoning of the governorship is another problem confronting the political parties, particularly the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), so as to avoid being outwitted by the opposition camp led by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
The Guardian’s investigations reveal that these issues have been dormant since they were first mooted at the inception of the current dispensation in 1999.
But those leading the agitation for their adoption say the time for implementation is 2015, reeling out arguments and figures why they should not only have their say, but also their way.
According to findings, the Christian community is being mobilised, and the Omo Eko gan gan ni are being enlisted for what a respondent referred to as “the ultimate showdown with the powers that have held us down.”
It’s a blame game all over, but the findings will prove and/or disprove misinformation, misrepresentations, half-truths, and outright falsehood being peddled by proponents and opponents.
However, the ruling party has warned against “fanning the embers of discord” and setting the state on fire with religious and ethnic sentiment that could reverberate across the country.
IT has been a subtle agitation right from inception of the current dispensation in 1999. But the campaigning has taken a din of some sorts, as 14 years on — it will be 16 years by 2015 — concerned indigenes, and the Christian community of Lagos State have not seen any significant changes from the status quo.
If anything, according to the aggrieved voting public, there appears a deliberate policy of the power brokers in the state to keep the two segments of the society in perpetual second-fiddle standing in the political arena.
Thus, they have vowed, according to numerous sources, that come 2015, the existing state of affairs would be reversed “in the interest of peace, belonging and togetherness.”
Besides these two hot potatoes — Christian versus Muslim representation, and indigene versus non-indigene candidacy — is the lesser, but also contentious issue of which senatorial district will produce the aspirant(s) of the ruling party or other parties.
This is the colour of politics in Lagos that agitators are canvassing, and presenting to the movers and shakers of power in the run-up to the 2015 elections.
Zoning the governor’s seat
FOR sure, the Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) (and the other political parties for that matter) will face not one but the identified three challenges, and perhaps more, in looking for a credible and acceptable successor to Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola.
First, the party will need to resolve which of the three senatorial districts will present the aspirants, among which the candidate will emerge for the election and, all things being equal, clinch the governorship to assume power in 2015.
Lagos Central had produced two governors: Bola Ahmed Tinubu (1999-2007) on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and later Action Congress (AC); and Babatunde Raji Fashola (2007-2015), on the podium of AC and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and probably when registered, completing his tenure under the fledgling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Second Republic governor of Lagos, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, who served on the stage of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) between 1979 and 1983 emerged from Lagos West, leaving Lagos East, which is clamouring to have its turn, the only senatorial district yet to present a governor.
In the choice of its candidate in 2015, the ACN would also need to consider the interests of other political parties involved in the ongoing attempts to merge into APC.
However, being the dominant party in the state among the ones in the merger arrangement, the ACN may not have any difficulty convincing the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to cede the governorship slot to it under the APC.
Except, of course, the merging parties would not give cognisance to political strongholds of their respective platforms, and thus throw open to the participating parties the contest for elective offices in all the states of the federation.
Still, the ACN needs to consider the strategies of other political parties outside the merger, particularly the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the main opposition party in Lagos State at present.
Where is the PDP, acclaimed for its zoning formula, picking its governorship? Is it from the same Lagos East that is harvesting the clamour for power shift? And what other things are the opposition parties doing to undercut the electoral advantage of the ACN in the governorship election?
Cry for a native chief executive
COMING down to the brass tack, both the Christian community and indigenes of Lagos State categorically say it’s about time their own mounted the seat of power in Alausa.
But that is where the convergence seemingly stops. While the Christians want to see a “practicing” member in the true sense of the word in the saddle, “the indigenes, first and foremost, want a native, a local, an ‘aborigine’, if you like, to be the governor of Lagos State in 2015,” a respondent told The Guardian at the weekend.
For emphasis, the source said: “Our people (indigenes) want the governor we can call our own; a ‘son of the soil,’ a Lagosian, not just born and bred here, but also one that his or her forebears had roots in the place.
“In other words, we want Omo Eko gon gon ni; Omo Eko pataki for governor in 2015.”
On this score, there is no discriminating between a Christian and a Muslim governor; what the indigenes want is a governor of Lagos origin.
However, they would not mind flowing with the mood of the majority — if that majority favours the emergence of a Christian governor, “so long as the person is an ‘original’ indigene of Lagos.”
Agitators of the enthronement of an indigene as governor are not in short supply; they peopled mainly by those who have been out of power since 1999.
Thus, weighing on the instant issue, one of the Lagos PDP governorship aspirants in 2011, Mr. Babatunde Gbadamosi, condemned a condition where Lagos indigenes are relegated while citizens of other states are appointed as commissioners, elected into the State House Assembly, National Assembly and other positions.
“Some of these people got financially empowered and later return to their states to contest,” he said. “How many of them can allow what they’re doing in Lagos to happen in their states of origin?
“If non-indigenes continue to consume what belongs to indigenes to their exclusion, on the spurious and wicked grounds that Lagos is a ‘no man’s land,’ as they used to say, or that Lagos ‘belongs to all,’ indigenous Lagosians, who are being deliberately and insidiously excluded from governance, will react.”
Gbadamosi added: “The sad thing is, even the Federal Government is playing this perfidious game of excluding Lagos indigenes from participating in the Nigerian project.
“Lagos currently has no indigene in the National Executive Council (NEC), contrary to the provisions of Section 147(3) of the 1999 Constitution.”
But statistics quoted by a source during our investigations present a different picture from the prevailing Christian-Muslim, indigene and non-indigene arguments, at least, in the Lagos State executive council and the permanent secretaries cadre.
The source from the Office of the Head of Service, said out of the 41 members of the state cabinet, 24 are Muslims, 17 Christians, 31 indigenes and 10 non-indigenes.
“Out of the 55 permanent secretaries, 35 are Christians, 20 Muslims while 41 are indigenes and 14 non-indigenes,” the source said.
Also giving statistics with reference to the 2013 Lagos State Diary, the source disclosed the Judiciary comprises 52 judges out of which 34 are Christians, 18 Muslims, 33 indigenes and 19 non-indigenes.”
Two spokespersons of the ACN commented on the subtle allegation that the leadership of the party is sidelining the indigenes of the state to the advantage of non-indigenes, who enjoy political appointments and elective positions.
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and the Deputy Publicity Secretary of the ACN in Lagos State, Mr. Funso Ologunde, warned yesterday that those trying to use religion and ethnicity as a weapon to achieve their inordinate ambition must be careful.
Urging people earning their livelihood in Lagos never to buy into such sentiment, they prayed that the residents should not experience what is happening in Plateau State between the “indigenes” and so-called “settlers.”
Harping specifically on the cosmopolitan nature of Lagos, Mohammed, who did not deny the inclusion of non-indigenes in elective and appointive positions said, “it is near impossible to disregard the presence of non-indigenes in Lagos, to talk of sidelining them.”
Noting that people, who left the ACN, would not reveal the real reason they left, he said “it always takes a lot of consultations and persuasion by the leadership of ACN before taking any decision pertaining to Lagos State because of its cosmopolitan nature.”
“For instance, the senator, representing one of the districts in Kaduna State, is an indigene of Nasarawa. There is even another example of a senator representing Kogi State, who is an indigene of Osun State.
“So, what is the basis of the subtle campaign based on religion and ethnicity? No country or state has ever survived by sidelining non-indigenes. It is not possible.”
“We must be careful to avoid using religion and ethnic sentiments to campaign. Are they saying people, who have lived over 100 years in a particular state, have no constitutional right to participate in politics?
Mohammed recalled that, “during the Civil War, Lagos was the only place where the Ndigbo did not abandon their properties. (Meaning that those who left the state on account of the war, came back to their properties unhindered).
“It is important that Lagos is a cosmopolitan state,” he said, adding that, “I want people to take the census of indigenes and non-indigenes representing the state, to know the exact position of things.”
According to Ologunde: “Nobody within the rank and file of the party is harping on ethnic divide in respect of appointments, and elective positions, among others. I wonder why now and what they want to achieve?
“I want to believe that some people outside the party are bent on destabilising Lagos State ahead of 2015. God, in His infinite mercy, will not allow it.”
He said Lagos is a melting pot of culture, where different ethnic groups had survived, intermingled and did business together for hundreds of years.
“Those behind this unholy campaign will not like the consequence,” Ologunde said. “I pray God not to allow their evil wish; otherwise, even the farthest villages in the country, far beyond the shores of Lagos, will feel the impact of the slightest ethnic or religious crisis here in Lagos.”
Still the arguments and canvassing continue.
Campaign for a ‘Man of God’ no more ‘rumour’
The agitation that the ACN must present a Christian as its governorship candidate in 2015 may no longer be wished away, as in the past.
For instance, the subject is reportedly generating crisis within the rank and file of the ACN, where there are conflicting responses among the members.
Approached for comments, a senior member of the party, considering carefully what to divulge, simply said: “I don’t want to talk on this matter because of its sensitivity.”
His reason is that, “we have many non-Lagos indigenes that are Christians, and they have been supporting us, but you cannot also overlook the economic impacts of the Christians.”
He revealed that, “as a matter of fact, this issue came up during Tinubu’s tenure and it was so controversial to the extent that a census of Muslims and Christians in the Civil Service and political appointments was taken.”
“I don’t know how it was later resolved. But I am too sure the ACN will not be doing itself any good if it pretended or glossed over this issue,” the source said.
But Funso Ologunde dismissed as rumour that the issue is generating crisis within the party. “PDP is the brain behind the campaign and they will fail,” he said.
He noted that the PDP had presented more Muslim candidates than Christians for the governorship elections in Lagos since 1999.
“I wonder who is behind this matter? It is a deliberate attempt to distract (Governor) Fashola and set the state on fire,” Ologunde said.
Stressing that the Lagos State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) “has been very supportive to the ACN administration since 1999,” the party mouthpiece argued that, “if at all such agitation will come, it’s coming too soon, as if the ACN has been in power for more than 100 years and did not present any Christian (governor).”
Ologunde said that the party was yet to begin the process of looking for Fashola’s replacement, as “there is still time. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has not set up election programme for 2015; so, why the distraction now?”
He said the ACN has been preaching and encouraging Christians across the country on the need to participate in politics. But “that should not be turned into a cheap blackmail to attract religious division in Lagos,” he warned.
He appealed to all leaders in the state to dismiss and disregard the insinuation (agitation for a Christian governor in 2015), noting that, “the stand of the ACN is to ensure the best candidate govern Lagos and we remain committed to that policy.”
Toeing the same line of argument, a lawmaker representing Lagos East Federal Constituency, Mr. Lanre Odubote, dismissed the agitation that a Christian must become the next governor of Lagos.
Wondering why the issue of competence, equity, justice and loyalty must be jettisoned for religious sentiment, he said it was a dangerous precedent to introduce religious sentiment into Lagos politics.
“This could be very dangerous, not only for the state, but also the Southwest zone and Nigeria in general,” he said. “Any attempt to distabilise Lagos is tantamount to trying to distabilise Nigeria.
“Lagos, unlike other states, provides opportunity for anybody born and bred here to participate and aspire for any political position, irrespective of religion, their backgrounds, ethnicity and others. Our focus in Lagos is basically merit.”
Odubote contented that “what is important is that the 2015 governorship slot should go to Lagos East; it must not be determined by religion.”
On the senatorial district to present the flagbearer of the ACN for the election, he disclosed that, “contrary to the belief that Tinubu emerged governor on the ticket of Lagos Central, the former governor and leader of the party used the slot of Lagos West.”
“Fashola came through Lagos Central, although they were both Muslim but their spouses practise Christianity. Therefore, the issue of religion is a mere campaign of calumny,” he said.
Christians pick up the gauntlet
IT was gathered that some members of the Christian community in the state have commenced the campaign for a Christian to emerge as the ACN governorship flagbearer in 2015.
They argue that since 1999, and despite their large population, economic impact and enormous supports for the party, “Christian aspirants in the ruling party were always edged out whenever election was drawing close.”
Indeed, the Director of Political Affairs of the Diocese of Lagos Mainland of the Anglican Communion, Venerable Folarin Shobo, sounded a note of warning to politicians, who are ridding roughshod in Lagos, that it would no longer be business as usual in 2015.
He said the state could not afford to continue with the present arrangement in which public officers and elected officials are largely people of a particular faith.
Acknowledging that Governor Fashola has done well in improving on the infrastructure in the state, the cleric said: “It is time for power to shift. It is time for us to have people who will continue to rule with the fear of God and respect for the rule of law.
“There is a strong need for genuine internal democracy among the parties that will produce a credible (Christian) candidate in 2015.”
However, Shobo urged Christians in the state to show interest in partisan politics and not be intimidated by the status quo.
“Christians who have a calling to go into politics should begin to prepare for the 2015 elections because power has to shift,” he said.
While explaining that getting political power is not a do-or-die affair, Shobo said, “we just have to get to a point that we must stop dancing to a particular tune all our lives.”
“It is not fair to have a government that is largely tilted to favour people of a particular religion. Christians over the years have been magnanimous enough.
“We have worked for people who are not of our faith and we have supported them to be in government. It is now time for us to come out and take the bull by the horns.”
But he admitted that the campaign would “take patience, perseverance and strong will.”
“It will take fasting and praying and it will take the readiness of men and women who have the calling to go into politics,” he said.
Shobo, who served as accredited monitor and observer during the 2011 elections in Lagos State, said the call for Christians to join the political bandwagon was not a call for mediocre “but a call to people with integrity who have the heart to serve.”
“We trust God and we are working assiduously to ensure that the next governor of Lagos State after Babatunde Raji Fashola is someone who is a Christian and who has a heart to serve,” he said.
Most Lagosians believe that Fashola, who has his roots in Surulere, is a native of Lagos, even as some are not so sure, insisting that he is a “settler.”
According to Shobo: “Politics and religion go hand in hand. There is no way you can divorce politics from religion.
“A true Christian should realise that he has a divine obligation to render service. Politics is about rendering service; it is about sacrifice. Anybody who cannot sacrifice should not think of going into politics.”
The priest called on church leaders to begin to sensitise their members, to take up the gauntlet and vie for political positions in the state.
“Asking for a Christian governor in Lagos at this time is not out of place. It is long overdue and it is time we began to do something about it,” he said.
Those penciled for 2015
ARE those concerned in the ACN actually taking note of the agitation for a Christian governor in the state in 2015? Well, indications on ground suggest a no and yes response.
Going by speculations, there are fears that only one among those penciled down to replace Governor Fashola is a Christian.
Some of the names being bandied include a former three-term commissioner and current National Legal Adviser of the party, Dr. Muiz Banire; Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji; the Commissioner for Works, Obafemi Hamzat; and a three-term lawmaker, Senator Ganiyu Solomon.
Others are: Senator Gbenga Ashafa; Commissioner for Agriculture and Cooperatives, Gbolahan Lawal; the lawmaker representing Ikorodu Federal Constituency, Abike Dabiri-Erewa and Senator Oluremi Tinubu, a Christian and wife of Asiwaju Tinubu, who recently said that she was not cut out for the governorship.
Venerable Shobo seized on this disclosure and said that, “it is unfortunate that of all the people that are being tipped to take over the state from Fashola, none is a Christian.”
“We are not going to be forceful but we are going to make our case and continue to mobilise our people to present themselves for service,” he said.
“The days of seeing politics as a dirty game are gone. If it is dirty, we (Christians) should go into it and clean it up.”
Nonetheless, an inside source in the ACN said the issue of a Christian governor “is already generating controversies.”
“The party leadership is deliberating on it and seriously looking for a solution,” the source said even as it added that, “it is a mere rumour that the ACN is wooing Mr. Jimi Agbaje, a Christian and top member of Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) into the governorship race.
“There is nothing like that. If it becomes inevitable for the party to present a Christian candidate in 2015, there are many credible Christians in the party,” it said.
It was learnt that but for his Christian faith, Agbaje was to be supported by ACN powers in 2007 to emerge candidate, and governor of the state on the party’s pedestal.
In the current case however, the source divulged that consideration is being placed on the likes of the Chairman, Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS), Mr. Babatunde Fowler or Mr. Tayo Ayinde, who are Christians.
The source said it would not be fair to accuse Tinubu and other leaders of the ACN of nursing any bias against the Christian community in Lagos.
“Tinubu always acknowledges the support he enjoyed from the Christian community since 1999,” it said. “For instance, he is aware of the support from the Christian community during his travails with former President Olusegun Obasanjo over the withholding of Lagos council funds.”
Still, the source agreed that there is, indeed, imbalance in the number of Muslims and Christians serving in the State Executive, elected officers in the State House of Assembly, the National Assembly and at the council level.
“Over 75 to 80 per cent of members of the State Executive, State House of Assembly and representatives of the state in the National Assembly are Muslims,” the source said, adding; “therefore, it is very clear there are more Muslims public officers, political office holders and appointees than Christians.
And the inevitable question: Has the leadership of the ACN in Lagos adopted a deliberate policy to frustrate or stop Christians from aspiring to govern the state?
As a respondent analysed the situation, “the development within the ruling ACN has suggested nothing but the fact that anytime a Christian aspires to contest for the party’s governorship ticket, they are either frustrated or shown the way out of the party.”
The source cited instances of former Deputy Governor under the Tinubu administration, Mrs. Kofoworola Akerele-Bucknor, her successor, Mr. Femi Pedro; and the first Deputy Governor under Fashola, Mrs. Sarah Sosan.
While the State Assembly, on the alleged instigation by Tinubu, impeached Akerele-Bucknor, Pedro and Sosan were dropped from their positions under unclear circumstances.
Scores of others like the late Funso Williams (formerly of the AD), Jimi Agbaje, former Senators Olorunnimbe Mamora and Adeseye Ogunlewe (later a former Minister of Works) were either relegated in the AD/AC/ACN affairs or forced to leave the party under controversial conditions.
Roll call of Lagos governors by faith
SINCE Lagos came into existence on May 27, 1967, through Decree No. 14 promulgated by the Federal Military Government, 13 administrators had governed the state — nine military and four civilians executives.
Brigadier-General Mobolaji Johnson, a Christian, became the first governor, followed by Commodore Adekunle Lawal, a Muslim, who was succeeded by Commodore Ndubuisi Kanu, another Christian.
Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, a Christian, took over from Lawal from 1978 to 1979, and handed over to Lateef Jakande, a Muslim, as the first democratically-elected governor on the platform of Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN).
In 1983, a military coup disrupted the Second Republic, which gave room for another military administrator, Air Commodore Gbolahan Mudashiru, a Muslim. Navy Captain Mike Akhigbe, a Christian, took over from 1986 to July 1988.
Brigadier-General Raji Rasaki, a Muslim assumed office from 1988 to January 1992 before handing over to another civilian governor, Sir Michael Otedola, a Christian, who ran on the platform of the National Republican Congress (NRC). It was obvious that the bickering within the rival Social Democratic Party (SDP) gave Otedola the seat.
Interestingly, the two candidates of the SDP in 1992 — the now deceased Prof. Femi Agbalajobi and Chief Dapo Sarunmi, who were later disqualified for over-heating the political arena of Lagos, and thus the entire transition programme in the country, were Muslims.
The Third Republic was aborted in 1993, paving way for the emergence of another military administrator, Colonel Olagunsoye Oyinlola, a Christian.
In 1996, Colonel Mohammed Buba Marwa, a Muslim, handed over to another elected governor, Senator Ahmed Tinubu, a Muslim, who won under the AD in 1999, handed the baton to incumbent Governor Fashola, a Muslim, in 2007.
Blame imposition of candidates
CONTRARY to arguments that Christians are generally apathetic to politics, hence the alleged imbalance in the Muslim-Christian structure in the Lagos political and public service, investigation reveals that the problem has to do with imposition of candidates in the ACN.
And quite naturally, all blames are being heaped on former Lagos governor and leader of the party, Chief Bola Tinubu.
One of the leaders and indigenes of Lagos (name withheld) accused Tinubu of being the brain behind the systematic relegation of Christians and indigenes of Lagos from benefiting in the running of the state affairs.
“I must confess to you; there is a civilian coup against Christians and Lagos indigenes and Tinubu is the one behind it,” the source said.
According to the source, “the injustice started since 1999 when Tinubu became governor.”
It alleged that the plan was “hatched and finalised” somewhere outside the country “among some Muslim leaders and top government officials.”
“A situation where the three serving senators and majority of the lawmakers are Muslims is worrisome,” it said.
The source continued: “Imagine a former Deputy Minority Leader in the Senate, Olorunnimbe Mamora, a Christian, was dropped and replaced with a Muslim, Gbenga Ashafa, while Senator Ganiyu Solomon, a Muslim, who has been in the National Assembly for the third time, is allowed to continue.
“These are issues we need to examine critically before 2015. There was nothing like religious discrimination in Lagos until it was introduced under the ACN.”
A founding member of Lagos State chapter of PDP, Chief Olayinka Amos, called on Lagos indigenes to wake up and challenge the alleged excesses of Tinubu, whom he accused of “indirectly trying to turn himself into a tin god of the state.”
Similarly, Chief Gbadamosi said, “as an indigene of Lagos from a multi-religious family background, my first instinct is to dismiss the religion argument in politics.”
“However, a closer examination of the allegation against the ACN does lend it some merit.
“There is a significant indigenous Christian population in Lagos State, who must not be made to feel like second-class indigenes in their own state, especially considering their numerical strength,” he said.
According to him: “Each of these individuals had their specific issues with the owner of ACN, arising almost wholly out of his now obviously insatiable need to utterly dominate his environment, and directly control all others totally.
“I can say this for Senator Bucknor-Akerele, Chief Femi Pedro and the late great Engr. Funso Williams, who all refused to be tools in the sleazy hands of a despot.”
However, coming to the defence of Tinubu, Lai Mohammed described the allegation as “malicious and capable of plunging the state into a religious war.”
Fielding questions via the telephone, he cautioned the citizens of Lagos and Nigerians to be careful “and to have at the back of their minds that no nation has ever fought a religious war and survived.”
Specifically on the allegation against Tinubu and the ACN, Mohammed said: “If Tinubu has any bias against Christians, he wouldn’t have returned Mission Schools (in Lagos) to the Churches in 1999.
“I could remember, as Tinubu’s Chief of Staff then, that the return of the Mission Schools generated a lot of criticisms from the Muslims, and even within Tinubu’s immediate family.
“But he dammed it and went ahead to return the schools. Should we now stand and accuse such a man of nursing religious bias?”
Mohammed noted that it was under the administration of Tinubu that a church was built in the State House, Marina.
“When we took over in 1999, we met a mosque that was in the State House but Tinubu built a church to balance the equation.
“Beyond that, there were several Christians in his cabinet like Prof. Yemi Osibanjo, Mrs. Kemi Nelson, Wale Edun, Yemi Kadoso, Leke Pitan, Opeyemi Bamidele (now a member of the House of Representatives from Ekiti State), Prof. Sobowale and many others.
“And this same Tinubu has a wife that is a Christian and a pastor in the Redeem (Christian) Church of God and likewise, Fashola, whose wife is a Dame in the Catholic Church.”
The ACN scribe urged politicians not to promote religious sentiment, as “the country and its politics will definitely outlive all the active players now.”
“It is, therefore, necessary that we show serious and unrepentant caution to introduce religious sentiment into politics.”
Mohammed challenged Nigerians and particularly the people of Lagos State, to carry out a thorough research on the number of serving Christians and Muslims in the Lagos cabinet from 1999 till date, stressing, “I can assure you there is nothing like what PDP is insinuating.”
He said: “When we formed Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 1998, the leading figures in the party were all Christians; they were Abraham Adesanya, Olanihun Ajayi, Chief Olu Falae, Ayo Adebanjo, Pa Fasoranti, Akinfenwa and others. And nobody questioned their authority based on religion.
“It is, therefore, unfair and very dangerous to encourage this type of sentiment.”
On the claim of Muslims leaders in Lagos State having a pact with the Caliphate, Mohammed said, “whosoever has the copy of the pact should produce it or anybody who was in the meeting or privy to names of those in attendance should speak out.”
“Our party does not encourage religious sentiment and it is unfair to accuse Tinubu based on that,” he said.
Everything considered, will the situation change in 2015? Will a Christian and/or indigene eventually assume the political power in Alausa?
Put succinctly, can the ACN pick a Christian as its gubernatorial candidate for the election?
The answers are blowing in the wind!
Source: Guardian
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