A group, Northern Christian Leaders Eagle-Eyes Forum, on Thursday, in Abuja, endorsed the candidacy of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari and his running mate, Professor Yemi Osinbajo.
The chairman of the forum, Pastor Aminchi Habu, in his address at the forum’s interactive session with the APC presidential candidate, in Abuja, asked General Buhari to forgive them for the wrong they had done him in the past, saying, “as you are seeing this forum here, we have been the pillars of propagating a lot of fabrications against Buhari. Since 2003, they will call us and give us what we want in the world and we will go and rubbish…”
He added that “we have made a U-turn. We are calling on Christians to come as we are declaring support for General Buhari and his running mate.”
Speaking further, he said, “as Christians, the best thing to do is to ask for forgiveness, without that, no matter what you are doing, you will never achieve your aims. We want to assure you after this meeting, you and your vice president should go and rest.”
The leader of the forum, who later openly presented two Bibles to both the APC presidential candidate and his running mate, added that the decision of the forum to support Buhari was because of “his integrity, honesty and incorruptible antecedents, adding that ”we have a conviction that he will move this country forward if elected as the president.”
According to him, “we are calling on Christians to come out en masse as we are declaring total support for Buhari.
“What this country needs now is people with the fear of God. All the corruption and insecurity is because we have abandoned the way of God, and we need people that will help us to let God have His way and we are only hoping that Buhari will do just that,” he stated.
The chairman of the forum also stated that once elected as the president, the APC candidate should declare a three-day fasting and prayer for all Nigerians, both Christians and Muslims “so that God will have mercy and return our lost glory.”
While responding, the APC candidate, who read the same speech he read at the interactive session he had with the Catholic Bishops, under the aegis of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), reaffirmed that ”I am not a religious fanatic of any sort and I have never been. In all my life, I have never supported extremism of any kind, and nowhere in my record of service to this nation can this false toga political opponents have tried so hard to put on me, be substantiated. Indeed, it is very unfortunate and I feel extremely sad that I have to give this type of assurance.”
Also speaking at the event, Professor Osinbajo declared that “I must say that it is a honour to be invited to the gathering of Christian brethren in the North and for that matter Christian leaders. I think that is one of the critical thing that we all know as Christians that he actually called us to disciple our nation.”
According to him, “one of the most important thing to the Lord Jesus Christ was the care of the poor. Indeed, in Mathew 25, he talked about what will happen on the last day, that he will ask us that “when I was naked, did you cloth me? When I was thirsty, did you give me drink? When I was hungry, did you give me food to eat? And Jesus said those that are able to answer will go to heaven while those who fail will go to hell, because as far as Jesus Christ is concerned, anyone who says I love God and does not commit himself to the uplift of the poor truely does not love God.
“Poverty does not know religion, it doesn’t know Muslim, it doesn’t know Christian, it doesn’t know Hausa, it doesn’t know Yoruba or Fulani, poverty is poverty, it affects people the same way. The corruption is such that so much money that should be used to take care of the people are stolen.
“We should not be deceived, the election that is coming should not be about religion, we should not allow anyone to confuse us, this election is about the future of our generation,” he stated
