Former Governor of Lagos State and 2023 presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has said that the purported clergymen who attended the unveiling of his running mate Senator Kashim Shettima were “not big names in the Christendom yet.”
Tinubu in a statement issued by the Director of Media and Communication, Tinubu Campaign Organisation (TCO), Bayo Onanuga, claimed the viral videos and pictures of the clerics at the event were the handiworks of political distractors.
The reactions from Tinubu’s camp is coming after several Nigerians on the social media have dismissed the clerics as those without any known church they lead, while some were allegedly identified as APC members following a trending video, showing people dressing up in clerical garments under a tree before showing up at Shettima’s official unveiling.
But according to Onanuga, the said clerics are church leaders who believe that Nigerians must eschew politics of hatred and religious bigotry and rather embrace politics of peace and nation building.
In his words “The event was an open affair, which allowed members of the public to attend, including the clergymen and some others now being derided by hirelings of the opposition.
“We want to say that those clergymen were not fake, not mechanics or yam sellers as the purveyors of hatred have made Nigerians believe in the social media. They are not big names in Christendom yet, they are gradually building up their missions.
“They are church leaders who genuinely believe that Nigerians must eschew politics of hatred and religious bigotry and rather embrace politics of peace and nation building.
“We, therefore, deplore the hysterical twisting of the presence of these men and women in cassocks and the false accusation against our candidates, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Shettima.
“The orchestrated social media sensation over the presence of the men is needless and all calculated to detract from the huge success recorded at the momentous event on Wednesday.
“We believe Nigerians are too wise and discerning to see through this shenanigan. Asiwaju Tinubu and his running mate and our great party are working very hard to provide purposeful leadership and good progressive governance that will improve the quality of life of Nigerians.
“We are well aware that the opposition parties and the sponsors of the social media charade are jittery and threatened by the intimidating political credentials of our candidates. The only way they hope to shift the attention of public scrutiny away from their uninspiring candidates and credentials is to create social media distraction.
“Our campaign is determined on focusing on core governance issues that affect all Nigerians to confront them and make the desired improvements in the standard of living of our people.”
