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The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has faulted a recent statement issued by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in which it called for a Christian president for Nigeria by 2023.
MURIC said while it is not opposed to the idea of a Christian president for Nigeria, CAN must wait for its turn.
MURIC spoke via its director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, on Monday.
The organization said it believes it is not yet the turn of a Christian to be the president of Nigeria, going by “mathematical exactitude from the time Nigeria began civil rule in 1999.”
The statement reads: “Chief Matthew Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian, spent eight years as president (1999 – 2007). Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan also spent five years (5th May, 2010 – 29th May, 2015). That brings the total spent by Christian presidents in Aso Rock to 13 years.
“Meanwhile Alhaji Musa Yaradua, a Muslim, spent three years as president and the incumbent, President Muhammadu Buhari, will be completing his eighth year in office by the good Grace of Allah on 29th May, 2023. By simple arithmetic, this will bring the total spent by the two Muslim presidents to 11 years.
“MURIC is being generous, otherwise it would have towed (sic) the line of those who argue that Jonathan spent six years and that will bring the total number of years spent by Christians to 14.
“In the same vein, we would have supported those who said Yar’Adua spent just two years, and that would have reduced the number of years spent by Muslims in power to 10 years.”
Akintola argued that Muslims would be shortchanged by two or four years if a Christian becomes president in 2023, and that the ideal thing is to allow another Muslim to spend only one term from 2023 to 2027.
“There will be no doubt about who takes the reins of power from 2027 because a Christian must be installed as president at that time. All controversies would have been removed but there is controversy now,” he noted.
He stressed that “For the avoidance of doubts, we reiterate our readiness to accept a Christian as president but it must be at the right time.
“It will be unfair to install a Christian president in 2023 when Muslims still have a shortfall of two or four years,” he said.
He then advised CAN to wait for its own time and stop heating up the polity with untimely demands.