Governor of Nasarawa State, Engr. Abdullahi Sule has charged Nigerians to shun religious sentiments, but consider competence and capacity, when choosing those whom they want to pilot the affairs of state at different levels in the country.
Sule who spoke at a media parley in Abuja, lamented that religious bias and other primordial sentiments played a huge role during the last general elections, describing the situation as unhealthy and dangerous in a democracy.
He said that assessing and supporting candidates on the basis of their religious affiliations cannot be the best approach as it would not only enthrone incompetence but could trigger avoidable crisis in a multi-religious polity like Nigeria.
“I pray that Nigeria does not derail into religious politics because this last election, as far as we are concerned in our state, it was largely religious politics.
But it’s my prayer that this doesn’t happen again because if we continue like this, no nation survives a religious crisis.
“Lebanon did not survive it; Azerbaijan did not survive it and Bosnia did not survive it. In fact none of these countries could survive it. I pray that we don’t go that route at all because Nigeria is even more volatile than some of those countries. I pray that Nigeria does not run into that problem.
“So there is a lot of work that we need to do and you (media) are part of that work that needs to be done to discourage people from going that way.
Let people be voted into political offices because they deserve it and not because of their religion,” he said.
The governor acknowledged that though the Muslim Muslim ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was a huge challenge in the build up to the elections in Nasarawa State, the ruling party triumphed in spite of the huge population of Christians in the state.
He expressed appreciation to the people of the stare who believed in him and voted for him based on his track records during the first four years. According to him there were many, among the electorate, who were enlightened enough to vote across party and religious divides, stressing that it was such people that made the difference.
On his achievements so far, Sule disclosed that apart from investments on basic social infrastructure and human capital development, his administration had shown interest in the ongoing exploration for hydrocarbons in the state. He said that being an engineer, he had followed up on these explorations which had resulted in the discovery and drilling of oil in Nasarawa State.
“I’m not saying that the oil is for Nasarawa State . I’m not saying that oil is for Northern Nigeria. But I want to see a homogenous Nigeria. I want to see a situation where people from the Niger Delta will also see that the North is contributing to the oil economy. It is not to take it and brag that we are also producing oil. No. That is not my dream. My dream is to ensure that the states in the North are also contributing to the common purse( the Federation Account) to be shared.
“After all, the oil in the Niger Delta and the oil here belongs to the Federal Government of Nigeria. So the reason why I’m doing that is to build that bridge between the Niger Delta and the North,” he said.
Sule disclosed that recent seismic surveys have shown that there were more potentials for oil and gas exploration and production in northern Nigeria than anyone had thought in previous years.
