A pro-Bola Tinubu presidency group, Renewed Hope Advocates, has cautioned aspirants for leadership positions in the 10th National Assembly to avoid ethnic and religion-based campaigns.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Director-General of the group, Olufemi-Daniels Agbaoku, said any plan to drag religion and ethnicity into the leadership contest will be counterproductive.
He said the direction the campaigns for the office of the Senate Presidency and House of Representatives Speakership was becoming disturbing and unacceptable.
Agbaoku stressed that the country has to move past ethnic and religious sentiments, stating that the 10th National Assembly provides the opportunity for that.
He said, “One of the greatest takeaways from the election of the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, is that it has defeated religion in the politics of our nation with his Muslim-Muslim ticket, and all we have to do now is sustain that effort and take out that enemy of Nigeria (religion) from her politics.
“After all, this is not the first time we are having same faith leadership at the National Assembly and heaven did not fall. In fact, the Muslims never made a fuss of it. But the Christians cannot continue to stoke religion politics, because it is nothing but defeatist.
“In our not-too-distant-history, we had a David Mark and Ike Ekweremadu head the National Assembly leadership and both were Christians, who held their grounds without pandering to sentiments. We have to move past this and the 10th National Assembly provides the opportunity for that.”
He added, “If we recall, running a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket appeared the biggest challenge for Asiwaju Tinubu, but the man held his ground, because he knew what damage religion has done to the fabric of our politics and God eventually used him to kill that monster in our politics.
“The election of the 10th National Assembly is part of the 2023 run and the federal legislature is not an appendage of the executive but a distinct and complementary arm of government. It should be allowed to choose the best of them in the overall interest of the nation. This is part of moving past primitive religion and ethnic politics.”
