The Christian Association of Nigeria has enjoined politicians to stop impersonating the body of clergy ahead of the 2023 general elections.
The Christian body also maintained its distance from the purported ‘bishops’ who attended the ceremony organized to unveil the Vice Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Kassim Shettima on Wednesday.
CAN described those who masqueraded as Christian leaders at the event as ‘unknown clerics’ in a statement by its General Secretary Barrister Joseph Bade Daramola on Thursday.
Daramola said that the Christian body was shocked by the unimaginable desperation to hire people to impersonate Christian leaders by the same politicians who had earlier claimed that Christians and the votes were were irrelevant in governance.
He stressed that CAN was shocked, disappointed and indeed worried by the rented unknown clerics at the event.
He urged the political class to avoid ignoring the religious sensibilities of Nigerians as provided for by the constitution.
He said, “The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has dissociated itself from the unveiling of the vice presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Kashim Shettima, saying those who were presented as church leaders are ‘unknown clerics’.
“We are shocked, disappointed and worried about the desperation of some politicians who once claimed Christians do not matter in governance and politics who went to hire some unknown ‘bishops, pastors and priests’ to impersonate the leadership of CAN in their political meeting.
“This is totally unacceptable, reprehensible, unprecedented and ungodly. If they are saying Christians have no electoral values why impersonating them in their meetings?
“We are throwing their principals and sponsors into the court of conscience. These actions of theirs have shown who they are to the public and what they are capable of doing to us all.
“We are asking political parties not to ignore religious sensibilities and sensibilities of the people especially in today’s Nigeria when Christians are becoming endangered species daily. Our quest is within the constitutional requirements and ignoring it is akin to trampling on the Constitution especially the Federal Character Act.”
