The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, has berated a former Catholic archbishop of Abuja, John Onaiyekan, over a comment regarding the swearing-in of President-elect, Bola Tinubu.
OsunDaily News reports that Onaiyekan had said it doesn’t make much sense for Tinubu to be sworn in before the conclusion of the election tribunal.
Reacting to the statement, Keyamo in a statement via Twitter, said Onaiyekan failed to make the same comment when former presidents like Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan, and Muhammadu Buhari were all sworn in as Presidents when their cases were still before the courts.
According to Keyamo, the former archbishop chose to single out Tinubu because the candidate he and other religious leaders supported did not win and they all feel humiliated.
Keyamo noted it has always been on the country’s electoral template since 1999 for the declared winners to be sworn into office in order to avoid a vacuum and not to foist an unconstitutional contraption on the system while the cases are in court.
He wrote: “Dear daddy Onaiyekan, you know we all respect you a lot, but your political comments are becoming unstatesmanlike.
“A statesman who doubles as a Man of God should strive to be fair to all. You didn’t say the same thing when Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Jonathan and Buhari were all sworn in as Presidents when their cases were still before the courts.
“You have chosen to single out this President- Elect @officialABAT this time around because the candidate you and your other religious brethren openly supported lost the election and you all feel humiliated and embarrassed. All issues raised against the victory of @officialABAT in court now (whether it is 25% votes in FCT or the fake drug issue, etc), are not different from issues raised against previous Presidents-elect because basically, the complaints have always been that the declared victor did not win the election fair and square or was not qualified to contest the election.
“My dear daddy, may I respectfully advise that going forward, you and your brethren may consider stepping back from the deep and murky waters of politics and desist from descending into the arena of political conflicts where your children in your congregations find themselves on different sides of political divides, so it would be unfair to them for you to openly take sides. The embarrassment to the Body of Christ is getting too much and no politician is worth dragging this dignified body into unnecessary political controversy. Is this too much to ask, daddy?”
