The fact that President Tinubu went, even though he is a practising Muslim and not a Christian, speaks volumes for him and our nation and is an eloquent testimony to the fact that religious tolerance and harmony is alive and well in Nigeria, and that even though we have a Muslim president and Muslim vice president, the Christian community is being treated with the utmost respect.
At a time when the whole country is rejoicing and proud of the fact that President Tinubu embarked on a two-day trip to Rome to attend the inaugural Mass of the newly-installed Pope Leo XIV, Babachir Lawal, the former secretary to the Federal Government, has described his attendance as a “non-event” and alleged that it came about “as a consequence of the work of lobbyists.”
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I have always had immense respect for this man and considered him a friend but I am constrained to ask whether he has lost his senses?
He has refused to recognise the fact that, as I pointed out on X on the day our president went to Rome, that no Nigerian president has ever honoured the Pope in this way and neither has any ever been given the honour by the Vatican to personally attend such an occasion.
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The fact that President Tinubu went, even though he is a practising Muslim and not a Christian, speaks volumes for him and our nation and is an eloquent testimony to the fact that religious tolerance and harmony is alive and well in Nigeria, and that even though we have a Muslim president and Muslim vice president, the Christian community is being treated with the utmost respect.
I expected no less. Archbishop Kaigama of the Catholic Church commended President Tinubu for going to Rome, as did millions of other Christians.
Does Babachir know better than them all? Who does he think he is?
Even though people like him had given the world the impression that Christians would suffer under this government, he has been proved wrong and the opposite is the case.
Under the Tinubu/Shettima Presidency the Christians of Nigeria have not only been treated equally and fairly but they have also been given a pride of place, which is far more than I can say happened under the government that Babachir served.
Having a Christian vice president is not the issue but rather having a president and a vice president who, regardless of their faith, are ready to treat Christians and Muslims in a respectful and equitable manner.
When President Buhari was in power with his so-called Christian vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Christians were slaughtered like flies all over the North and every single operational head of each of our security outfits and arms of the military were Northern Muslims.
A Christian VP could not stop this shameful indignity and gratuitous insult against his fellow Christians from happening, but under Tinubu and Shettima the aberration was remedied and the leadership of our Armed Forces and security outfits have been balanced in an equitable and all-inclusive manner.
In the light of this, Babachir is the last person who should be complaining about insults to Christians and the first to repent of his obvious sins and seek prayers and deliverance from his bitterness, hate, resentment and anger.
He does not speak for the Christian community and he should keep his mouth shut and stop always trying to see and define matters of governance through a religious prism.
Finally, his disrespectful and utterly absurd description of Vice President Kashim Shettima as a “flat spare tyre” the other day has not gone unnoticed.
I am not the VP’s spokesman and I am aware that he is quite capable of fighting his own battles but surely Babachir, with his age and experience, would accept the fact that in attempting to subject the vice president to ridicule, he has only proved the fact that he is as asinine and uncouth as many had suspected.
If we are looking for “flat spare tyres” and I daresay “chicken-hearted ice cream sellers”, Babachir should look towards the vice president that he happily served and worked under and not Kashim Shettima who is doing an excellent job and supporting the president in a profound and eloquent manner.
Unlike the VP he served, Kashim did not turn a blind eye, remain silent and hide under the bed when both Christians and Muslims were being slaughtered by terrorists without consequence under the previous regime.
Babachir can criticise the government as much as he wants and no one is losing any sleep over it but he should stop doing so in the name of Christianity.
This is the greatest insult of all and he would be wise to desist lest he provokes a more robust response.
Femi Fani-Kayode is the Sadaukin Shinkafi, the Wakilin Doka Potiskum, the Otunba Joga Orile, a former minister of Culture and Tourism, a former minister of Aviation and a former Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to President Olusegun Obasanjo.
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