TUNJI OLANIYI
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Legacy Initiative International (LEGACY) have said they would henceforth engage more in helping Nigeria to enthrone good governance by making sure that only suitable persons with proven leadership qualities are voted into public offices during elections.
In a communiqué issued at the end of their meeting in Lagos recently, CAN and Legacy also agreed to pay closer attention to what manner of candidates that put themselves forward for election into public offices and make their opinions known to the Christian faithful in a non-partisan manner.
The communiqué was signed by Rev. (Dr.) Support Ayokunle and Dr. Kenny Martin’s, the CAN president and grand patron of Legacy, respectively.
It also said CAN and Legacy would meet with the Leadership of the Muslim faithful to draw a template together of the minimum expectations of the inter-faith community from those vying for elections into public offices in Nigeria from the Federal, State and Local Government positions and agree on the best suitable candidates for each of the offices.
The 10-point communiqué read in part: “Where a candidate has gotten elected into public office based on the intervention of the inter-faith community but failed to live up to expectations, CAN and Legacy will support the recall of such official by the constituents and will not support such candidate in any future election.
“CAN and Legacy will not align themselves with any Political Party and will only support credible candidates at elections irrespective of their Religion, Gender, Ethnic Background or Political Affiliation;
“CAN and Legacy will along with the Muslim Leaders form an election monitoring body that will monitor elections both here in Nigeria and other Countries, with ECOWAS and AU accreditation as required;
“CAN and Legacy will along with the Muslim Leaders organise a National Peace Convention for all the Registered Political Parties and INEC with a view to getting them to sign a Peace pact to keep the peace during elections and to compete with each other in accordance with the Rules and Legislations guiding the elections;
“CAN and Legacy are abhorred by the current rate of violent crimes in the Country whereby innocent Nigeria citizens are daily kidnapped, killed or displaced from their place of abode by hostile elements from within or outside of their communities for no justifiable reasons whatsoever, and call on the Federal Government to make more resources available to the Law Enforcement Agents to enable them to be more proactive in combating and forestalling such incidents going forward;
“That CAN and Legacy will at the proposed National Peace meeting with the Muslim Leaders take a critical look at the myriad of problems that have militated against the attainment of cohesive nationhood by the Country since Independence in 1960 and proffer solutions to the Federal Government on how to address them ;
“CAN and Legacy commiserate with all the flood victims and other victims of both natural and unnatural disasters in the Country’.
