…..Expresses Concern on Nation’s Challenges
Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN has concluded arrangements to meet with all presidential candidates for the next year general election.
This comes as president of the Christian body, His Eminence Archbishop Daniel Okoh, said the country is facing a crisis of development and governance, despite efforts to achieve unity, peace, and prosperity for all.
He blamed the challenges still faced by Nigerians on what he described as the “incoherent constitutional and institutional framework” of the country.
The CAN President, who spoke during the first leg of an interactive session with 2023 presidential candidates organised by the apex Christian body in Abuja yesterday, explained that CAN had spent time to review the problems hindering peace and progress in the country and had articulated suggestions on how best to improve them.
The theme of the presidential dialogue is ”A Prosperous and Peaceful Nigeria Founded on Justice and Freedom for All.
“Okoh said: “We have consulted with Nigerians of diverse religious, ethnic and social identities on the problems of the country and the solutions to them have been articulated in the strategic document we call, the ‘Charter for Future Nigeria.’
“The Charter for Future Nigeria begins with a diagnosis of Nigeria’s problem and locates it primarily in an incoherent constitutional and institutional framework that defines governance and social and economic interactions in Nigeria.
“This incoherence is the main reason the country today is almost submerged in the chaos of insecurity, instability, and economic stagnation
The document considers this incoherence in political, social, and economic dimensions. It makes genuine recommendations for resolving Nigeria’s recurrent crises that border on justice and fairness, equality of all ethnic and religious groups, equal access to basic economic and social rights, political freedom and an egalitarian and just social order.”
According to him, the essence of the dialogue is to ensure that all the presidential candidates clearly understand the concerns of Nigerian Christians and propose policy and programme to address them.
“We believe that with this kind of respectful and sincere conversation, we will find lasting solutions to these crises.
“The overriding concept in this transformation is ‘democratic citizenship’, which should be the focus of governance at all levels in Nigeria in promoting the socioeconomic well-being of every Nigerian citizen, irrespective of religion, ethnicity or social pedigree,” he added.
Speaking at the meeting, the presidential candidate of Action Alliance, AA, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, who identified insecurity and economic sabotage as major teething challenges that would confront the next administration, said Nigeria didn’t need an unreliable leader who had a fragile grip on reality come 2023 and beyond.
“You don’t need fragile leadership. You don’t need a leadership that will compromise all of your country.
“That leadership must join the international community’s ambition in returning the country to the mainstream of the attainment of security and economic prosperity,” Al-Mustapha said