The Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo declared his intention to run for president in 2023, a declaration that MURIC are quite clearly against.
The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) group described the declaration as unethical and purely evangelical.
In a statement signed by the group’s director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola on Tuesday, the group said the VP’s declaration was in line with the directive of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. The statement titled, ‘Osinbajo’s declaration is RCCGisation of the polity – MURIC’ read in part,
“The Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, yesterday declared his intention to run for the post of president in the coming 2023 general elections. This declaration, to our mind, will not pass any ethical screening. It is purely evangelical.”
“As a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Osinbajo is simply carrying out his own part of the RCCG instruction dished out a few weeks ago on the creation of a political department in all parts of Nigeria. We see Osinbajo as the arrow head of the RCCGisation of the Nigerian polity. His declaration must therefore be seen as a demonstration of his own loyalty and obedience to the directive which came from the RCCG headquarters.
“But MURIC cannot keep quiet after Osinbajo’s declaration because it is not in consonance with our agenda for the South West. We have never hidden this agenda from public view as it was made public as far back as February 2021 when we declared our preference for a Yoruba Muslim president.”
READ MORE: Vice President Osinbajo Officially Declares for 2023 Presidency
The statement also added that all Yorubas who have led the nation have been Christians.
“Osinbajo’s declaration presupposes that Yoruba Christians are born to rule. It gives the provocative impression that Yoruba Muslims are ‘children of slaves’ (a la Ishmael and Isaac storyline) who should never taste power. As we have argued in earlier press statements, all the four Yorubas who have been in Aso Rock were Christians: Olusegun Obasanjo, Earnest Shonekan, Oladipo Diya and the incumbent vice president Yemi Osinbajo.”
“the fact that Tinubu declared on 22nd January, 2022, when he met President Muhammadu Buhari in Aso Rock makes Osinbajo’s declaration look like a stab in the back.”