The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, has cautioned loyalists of politicians not to kill themselves in demonstrating support for their candidates.
According to the septuagenarian priest, opposition politicians are friends jostling for their piece of the national cake.
As such, he said, they shouldn’t be taken too seriously.
Kukah spoke on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Tuesday, hours after the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; and his Peoples Democratic Party counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, bantered at the private wing of the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport in Abuja on Monday.
Kukah, who is the Convener of the National Peace Committee, said political fanatics should learn a lesson from the public exchange of pleasantries between Tinubu and Abubakar.
He said the message from the banter is that political loyalists of both frontline presidential candidates for the 2023 election should be wise, eschew violence and not kill themselves for people drinking from the same pool.
“These politicians are struggling and they’ve lived their lives struggling for the national cake which they will distribute amongst themselves. It is therefore in the interest of ordinary Nigerians to know that they have to vote to stay alive,” the cleric said.
Kukah also said that enthusiasts of politicians “must understand that these politicians know themselves” regardless of their grandstanding and posturing.
He, therefore, advised supporters of candidates all over the country to be “a bit more restrained and wise”.
He said: “We ordinary people must figure out how to manage our passion when it comes to politics.
“Don’t take seriously the grandstanding of the politicians.
“All the things you see about them abusing themselves or quarrelling, you will think they will never shake hands.
“They are very good friends, and many of them drink from the same pool.
“So, don’t go and kill yourself for nothing.
“That is what that message is all about.”
