Olorogun Vincent Oyibode, the national deputy youth leader of the PAN Niger Delta Forum, has expressed grave concern over the results of the 2023 presidential election, in which Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress was declared the victor. He has warned that with a Muslim-Muslim presidency which has no place for Christians, Christianity may face difficult times in the future.
Olorogun Oyibode, Commissioner for DESOPADEC, Delta State, spoke at a global press conference on Monday in Warri on the subject of “Outcome of 2023 Presidential Elections: Implication for National Unity, the fate of southern Nigeria and Christians,” and expressed concerns about the political and religious “temperament” of Kassim Shetima, the Vice President-elect, as well as his fanatical Islamic identity. This indicates that Nigerian Christians are under significant risk. Oyibode said, “We ought to be prepared for what is to come.
According to him, “We canvassed a position that was against the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC and drummed support for the PDP before the general election. But our elders decided to back Peter Obi of the Labour Party, which we counseled against since we thought it was not strategically sound for the nation’s political environment. Today, the Obi movement succeeded in splitting the PDP vote in South-South and South-Eastern Nigeria, resulting in the election of the APC, whose appalling performance caused Nigeria to experience untold suffering.
‘’ In spite of our misgivings, we voted for the Muslim-Muslim ticket, and the results would be disastrous for Nigerian Christianity. The inference is that a Christian would probably not be there when issues regarding religious peace are being discussed in the presidency. Church tax decisions might simply be made by executive order, and our churches should be prepared for tough times in the near future because they will undoubtedly have to start paying taxes.
The Islamist agenda is taking shape, and Nigerian Christians may have a grim future. It may have been avoided if Atiku Abubakar had had complete backing. Sadly, the majority of church leaders served as shills and recruiters for the Peter Obi movement. The center can no longer support the situation as it currently stands, Oyibode continued.
He disclosed that the Nigeria 1999 constitution mentioned Sharia 73 times, Grand Khandi 54 times, Islam 28 times, Muslim 10 times and no single mention of Christ, Christians, Christianity or Church at all.
‘’The constitution has already skewed the legal identity of Nigeria towards an Islamic state. With the Muslim-Muslim president and Vice President, a full blown Islamic identity for Nigeria is on the way. They will be riding roughshod on the pains of Christians with impunity. The power distribution in the APC presidential ticket does not factor Christians at all. This is a source of worry for us at the PANDEF youth wing’’, he said.
The group also lambasted INEC for failing to deliver a credible election as promised, stressing that the manual collation of results against the transmission of same from the unit level was an aberration that could not guarantee the credibility of the process.
‘’However, we want to demand from Bola Ahmed Tinubu to recognize the secular identity of Nigeria as a nation. The president-elect must take the Niger Delta question as a cardinal agenda of his administration by taking the 16 point agenda raised by PANDEF before the FG in 2016 seriously.
Any failure to attend to our queries can lead to unrest in the Niger Delta area. Our zone harbors the liquid gold which is the mainstay of the Nigerian economy. We are watching as events continue to unfold. We pray and hope for the best for Nigeria’’ the group added.
