President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor Wednesday expressed bitterness over how the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega refused to hold a meeting with him.
Oritsejafor, who said the botched meeting, would have held earlier this year, hinted at the probability of Jega ignoring his request based on what some of the close associates of the electoral umpire must have told him.
“Some people have told me that I am too small to meet with him (Jega),” Oritsejafor said.
He made this disclosure at a one-day interactive session of key stakeholders in the Nigerian project comprising religious, political organizations and security agencies organized by think Nigeria Christian-Muslim movement with the theme: ‘towards a peaceful and purposeful political transition in 2015.’
Oritsejafor said: “The General Secretary of CAN has the INEC Chairman’s number. He sent him a text saying the CAN President wants to meet with you. The INEC chairman text back saying those days were not good so Jega gave us two days to chose from and we chose one and he (Jega) accepted. I do not live in Abuja, I live in Warri, and so I have to make my plans to come here. All my plans were made and just as I was ready to come to Abuja my General Secretary contacted me again that the INEC chairman (Jega) said he cannot meet with us that he is too busy.
“Till today I don’t have access to the INEC Chairman. I could not meet this man. We wanted to discuss things bordering us with him. We want to give him some solutions, suggestions but that was it. No new date for us to meet with him. So this is a problem that is why I am saying this now publicly. This happened a little less than two months ago.
“INEC is a necessary organization that every nation must have. I am concerned about two things. One is on the issue of the Permanent Voters Cards (PVC). I have had it said several times that there are many Nigerians who are refusing to collect their PVC. I beg to disagree on this because I sample this and the church I pastor in Warri with about 35 thousand people and I asked to show me there PVCs and I was shocked, I tell you probably close to half of my congregation do not have their PVC.
“I sent my pastors over 100 of them out to meet them and find out why this is so.
“I think one of the things INEC can do is to publish the PVCs that they have quickly, so that Nigerians can easily locate them or pass information on it to each other, so that one can go there to collect it. I am not saying this will solve all the problems but it will go a long way to solve the problem. We charge INEC to please make sure that everyone of those Card Readers work. They should work, they must work.”
Oritsejafor said for the election to be successful Christian and Muslim leaders must sign a peace pact ensuring that Christians and Muslims are safe before, during and after the general elections.
He said: “If we are going to have a successful election there must be confidence building. And one of the things that will build confidence is that Christians and Muslims must resolve that we will protect each other.
“Let Christians who live in predominantly Muslim areas not be afraid to remain there. Many are running away. They shouldn’t. After all they are Nigerians. And our Muslim brothers must make a commitment to say Christians will not be killed in predominantly Muslims areas while Christians should also say Muslims who live in their area will not be killed.
“We must make that commitment to each other. And we must make it publicly. Let the nation know that nobody is going to be victimized based on his or her religion. Everyone must and should be free to go out and vote freely believing that who they are voting for will help them. That is what democracy is all about. Many of us here today are preachers; some are politicians and others. But the most important ones are the preachers because if you are politicians you will either go to the church or the mosque.
“The preachers here must also make a commitment to go to the churches and to the Mosques to begin to preach that Christians are save everywhere and Muslims are save everywhere and we must begin to teach our people to believe in Nigeria. We must begin to emphasize to our
people that we are all Nigerians.”
people that we are all Nigerians.”
He advised leaders of both religions that: “We must begin to tell our leaders, our followers to begin to think Nigeria. Nobody is superior to the other.”
The CAN leader also urged all to encourage the military for their fight against Boko Haram.
The President General of the Supreme Council of Islamic Preachers in Nigeria (SCIPIN), Sheikh Muhammed Nourayn Bn-Ahmad said the two major problems: “currently threatening the corporate existence of the Nigerian nation are that of religious extremism/intolerance, as well
as subterranean forces working to break-up Nigeria into those previous pieces and ethnicities that were amalgamated in the past 100 years.”
as subterranean forces working to break-up Nigeria into those previous pieces and ethnicities that were amalgamated in the past 100 years.”
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