‘Man Who Could not Islamize Wife, Children, Cannot Islamize Nigeria’,- Oshiomhole Says Tinubu Good Example Of Religious Tolerance

Former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has declared that the argument surrounding the emergence of a Muslim/Muslim ticket of the party is a non-issue, arguing that a man who could not islamise his wife and children cannot in any way islamise Nigeria.

Oshiomhole was speaking with journalists after series of reconciliation meetings across Edo State. The state chapter of the party, which has been enmeshed in crisis leading to his removal as National Chairman of the party and the defection of the state governor, Godwin Obasaki, is gradually carrying out reconciliation moves across the state.

Oshiomhole, is at the heart of the reconciliation even as he is a senatorial candidate and Deputy Director General of the APC Presidential Campaign.

He explained that the essence of the stakeholders’ meeting “is to have a conversation because as they say, a house divided among itself cannot stand. I believe that the irreducible precondition for winning an election is that we must be united and the only way to be united is to have an inclusive meeting.”

Delving into the raging debate on the Muslim/Muslim ticket, Oshiomhole said, people have left the real discussion for “deliberate mis-information, which is a non-issue. People spend so much time talking about this. Yes, Asiwaju is a Muslim, he is a Yoruba man from Lagos but he found love in Delta State, our own Bendel and this Tinubu lady is a Christian, she wasn’t a pastor then.

“She maintained her faith and grew to become a pastor in Redeemed Church, one of the largest Pentecostal churches in Nigeria. So, a man who did not Islamise his wife, he did not ask the wife to convert, some of his children are Christians, some are Muslims, is there a better example of religious co-existence than this? He accepted that people have the right to worship according to their conscience.

“So, if he has not Islamised his wife, he has not Islamised his children, is there any sensible reason that he will do something negative when he becomes the president of Nigeria? Religion is not the problem; today, you have unemployed Christian youths who are hungry, you have unemployed Muslim youths who are hungry, does it matter who govern?

“When you go to Dubai, do you need to ask whether the leader of Dubai is a Muslim, yet he is a Muslim, those who go to UK for holidays, do they need to ask whether the Prime Minister is a Christian, yet he is Christian. Does it matter to you the religion of those who developed those countries?

Whoever will develop Nigeria should be the issue. All these sentiments are meant to remove issues from the debate,” Oshiomhole added.

Oshiomhole further explained that most of the presidential aspirants have been in government before Tinubu was governor of Lagos, adding that “there was a time when horsewhips were used to control traffic in Lagos, today are we not seeing six lanes, ten lanes in Lagos?

“Are we still using even numbers and odd numbers to be able to drive in Lagos? He raised the IGR and today Lagos is about 45 percent of Nigeria’s GDP. That is the product of a brain because if you cannot fix your house, you cannot fix your community, if you cannot fix your community, you cannot fix your town and you cannot fix your state, you cannot fix Nigeria.

“Those who say Edo is not Lagos, are they able to manage security the way Lagos is doing? Before you tell me what you will do, you must tell me what you have done before,” he said.

Speaking with reference to the rising profile of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, PDP, Oshiomhole said, “Go to Anambra, look at the roads there, look at the schools there and then compare them to Lagos. I then ask the question, what you didn’t do in Anambra, can you do it in Abuja?”

Oshiomhole also attacked the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, saying, “Go to Adamawa and look at the poverty level compared to other parts. Our people need to understand that nobody can give what he doesn’t have.

“There are people who say they want Nigeria to be a producing nation but they live on importation, their business is to import. A man whose specialization is to import goods to Nigeria, they even import wine from South Africa. How can they promise you that they will make Nigerians productive. We have to disobey any logic that is not based on facts.

“When Asiwaju (Tinubu) finished his tenure as governor of Lagos State, he told his wife to go to the senate and stayed back, if a woman has such a husband, won’t she marry him over and over again and have you seen Tinubu’s wife fighting, agitating for what is right in the senate?

“There is another presidential candidate who married from the South East and once the woman became his wife, he Islamised the woman, he went to Yoruba land and married Christian, he Islamised the woman. Go and check these records, facts are facts, opinions are free,” Oshiomhole added.