TheCable

A group known as the Nigeria Equity Group (NEG) says after the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari who is Muslim, the country needs a Christian president in 2023 to maintain “balance”.

Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, Emeka Nwosu, NEG convener, said the failure of government at all levels to manage the country’s diversity has heightened distrust and discontent in the country.

Nwosu said NEG will support any political party that works to produce a Christian candidate, adding that their focus as a group is to promote inclusion in an effort to douse ethno-religious crisis in the country.

“We wish to state clearly that we will mobilize patriotic Nigerians against any political party that goes against this template and does not lead its presidential ticket with a Christian candidate,” the convener said.

“We are, however, hopeful and confident that it won’t get to the point of conflict; that after the eight-year rule of a Northern Muslim, good sense will prevail and the political parties will do the right thing by ensuring that power moves into the hands of a competent southern Christian.

“We should however state that our group is not a Christian organization, or even a religious one for that matter. The primary focus of the NEG is to promote inclusion and equity in our body polity. And, so, we would fight for the rights of Muslims or any other interest group in Nigeria if we believe there is danger of those rights being abridged in anyway.

“As a reminder, when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo completed his tenure, he handed over to Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’ adua, a northern Muslim. After the untimely and unfortunate death of Yar’adua, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, a Southern Christian took over as President. After his tenure, President Muhammadu Buhari took over and has been on the presidential saddle for more than five years.

“We believe that it is essential that after the tenure of President Buhari, the next president should be a southern Christian, in order for us to maintain this balance and not to further aggravate the ethno religious issues that have bedeviled our country lately.”

Nwosu said it will be “deliberate disenfranchisement of the Christian population” if a Christian president does not emerge in 2023.

“It would also mean that there will not be a Christian President in the foreseeable future and perhaps in the lifetime of every Nigerian adult living today,” he said.

In February, NEG met with Samson Ayokunle, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), who said he stands by the call for a Christian president in 2023.