The Christian Association of Nigeria will meet with the presidential candidates of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar; and Labour Party, Peter Obi, on Wednesday at an interactive session in Abuja.
The CAN President, His Eminence, Archbishop Daniel Okoh, disclosed this during the first leg of the interactive session with 2023 presidential candidates organised by the apex Christian body in Abuja on Tuesday.
The theme of the presidential dialogue is ‘A Prosperous and Peaceful Nigeria Founded on Justice and Freedom for All.’
Recalls that Tinubu’s decision to run alongside a fellow Muslim, Kashim Shettima, was met with criticisms from CAN and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, led by Bishop Wale Oke.
Okoh said the country is facing a crisis of development and governance and blamed the challenges on what he described as the “incoherent constitutional and institutional framework” of the country.
He explained that CAN had spent time to review the problems that hindered peace and progress in the country and articulated suggestions on how best to resolve them.
Okoh said, “We have consulted with Nigerians of diverse religious, ethnic and social identities on the problems of the country and the solutions to them have been articulated in the strategic document we call the Charter for Future Nigeria.
“The document considers this incoherence in political, social, and economic dimensions. It makes genuine recommendations for resolving Nigeria’s recurrent crises that borders on justice and fairness, equality of all ethnic and religious groups, equal access to basic economic and social rights, political freedom and an egalitarian and just social order.”
According to him, the essence of the dialogue is to ensure that all the presidential candidates understand the concerns of Nigerian Christians and propose policy and programme to address them.
Speaking at the meeting, the presidential candidate of the Action Alliance, Hamza Al-Mustapha, who identified insecurity and economic sabotage as major teething challenges that would confront the next administration, said Nigeria did not need an unreliable leader.