My fears for Buhari’s running mate —Sen. Jibrin
From NOAH EBIJE, Kaduna
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
The presidential aspiration of former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), may have suffered a set back over the choice of his running mate, Pastor Tunde Bakare. Buhari is running on the ticket of the platform of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) for the April elections.
Jibrin
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A Second Republic senator and Deputy Coordinator of Jonathan/Sambo Campaign Organization, North-Central zone, Walid Jibrin, told Daily Sun that Buhari committed blunder by picking Bakare as the running mate without investigating the pastor’s background.
This, according to Jibrin, was because Bakare was a devoted Muslim, but later ditched Islam for Christianity, which he said was an offence against Islam.
The penalty for the offence, he said, according to Islam, is death by stoning, stressing that Bakare is still at risk of being stoned to death if only the Muslim Ulamas and other relevant Islamic organizations could dig up the fact of the matter and take appropriate measures in accordance with Islamic laws:
“Buhari, Ribadu and Shekarau who are all presidential candidates from the North, picked Christians as their running mates. Buhari has Bakare as his running mate. In fact, Bakare was a Muslim before he was converted to Christianity. The punishment for anybody who has converted from Islam to another religion is death by stoning.
“They are talking about a Christian being president, why are they not talking about a vice presidential candidate, a Muslim who converted to Christianity, who should have been stoned to death in Islam?
“Assuming Buhari becomes the president and he is not around, it is the pastor that would be the president. So, why are they bringing this kind of insinuations into politics? The most important thing we should be doing is to look at the qualities of the various candidates and their capabilities rather than promoting religious sentiments in one political party and causing confusion for the party.” Excerpts:
You said Pastor Bakare was supposed to be stoned to death for converting to Christianity, has he escaped such punishment or is he likely to be stoned in future?
The Islamic community is frowning on the marriage of somebody with 86 wives in Niger State and trying to disown him for doing so. I think Bakare should be disowned by Nigerian Muslims for abandoning Islam for Christianity. That is more because the man with 86 wives is said to have given some reasons to defend his action. It depends on the Ulamas to look at the issue.
What is the difference between the man with 86 wives and the man who abandoned Islam?
This is a big question to the Nigerian Muslim Ulamas to ponder on and advise us. The CPC Muslim members are also waiting for the advice so that they don’t confuse the masses. They should stop coming to PDP to spoil our arrangement which is a good one. We have a Christian president and a Muslim vice president which is proper.
What is your advice to Buhari on this matter?
I am not a member of CPC and I don’t want to delve into their affairs. I can only talk on issues that affect Nigeria. As a Muslim, I really feel the conversion of Bakare from a Muslim to a Christian is against Qur’anic injunction, so the Muslim northerners should choose who to go with. They are saying Muslims should not vote for a Christian who has a true Muslim as his vice president. Why are they not talking about Buhari’s running mate who became a Christian? This is a challenge to those who are inciting religious sentiments against President Goodluck Jonathan. If they are truly religious people, then we are waiting to see what they will do about Bakare.
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