Chairman Kaduna state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev Joseph Hayab, Wednesday, urged Nigerians to ignore the state’s immediate past governor, Nasir el-Rufai, over alleged Islamisation claims.
He said the ex-governor’s recent statement that the Muslim/Muslim ticket and victory of President Bola Tinubu had silenced his critics, was a poly aimed to further his (El-Rufai’s) alleged presidential ambition.
The CAN chairman was reacting to a trending video on social media where El-Rufai was alleged to have said that the Muslim-Muslim ticket in the Kaduna governorship election would be sustained beyond 20 years in the state.
In the video, el-Rufai who spoke in Hausa, also claimed that Muslim domination was being replicated at the national level.
But reacting to El-Rufai’s alleged comment while featuring on Arise TV’s Morning Show on Wednesday, Hayab said Nigerians should not be bothered about El-Rufai’s comment as he was just seeking relevance and playing to the gallery to rile up unsuspecting Nigerians.
According to him, El-Rufai is living in that dream that he could play these religious games, and possibly tomorrow he can become the president of Nigeria.
He said, “You know, since he (El-Rufai) is up to something, he is playing a game and what he would do is to confuse people and set up Christians against Muslims; set up Christians against the present government, and then he would stand to benefit from it tomorrow. Unfortunately, I will say to him, he has failed from the onset.
“With this, he has actually proved to Nigerians that he is not in the first place fit to be a leader and I think that is one of the problems in Nigeria. We give people power without testing their emotional stability whether they are mentally alright to lead.”
When asked to give an official response to El-Rufai’s statement, Hayab said, “Our simple response is that ignore the madman. Ignore the man who is calling for attention and ignore the man who is up to a gimmick and ignore the man who is up to an agenda, don’t even take him seriously.
“If his Muslim/Muslim ticket has actually succeeded, we wouldn’t have had the killings, the division, and the problems we have in Kaduna. So, there was not even success to record this in his administration.”
