Vice Presidential candidate of the
All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has berated President
Goodluck Jonathan for being the first Nigerian leader to have attended the
meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) since Nigeria was
clandestinely enlisted by President Ibrahim Babangida in 1986.
(In this Photo are President Goodluck Jonathan and IOC SG Eiyadd Amin Madani meet in Abuja on June 2, 2014)
Osinbajo said this on Tuesday, at an
interactive session with professionals in Warri, Delta State.
Nigeria is one of the 57 member
states of the OIC, an organisation that states that it is “the collective voice
of the Muslim world” and works to “safeguard and protect the interests of the
Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony”.
According to Osinbajo, those accusing
the presidential candidate of the APC, Muhammadu Buhari, of being a Muslim
fundamentalist, who might Islamize Nigeria are getting it all wrong.
“Throughout his period as military
head of state, Buhari was under intense pressure to drag Nigeria into the OIC,
but he never yielded, because he respects Nigeria as a secular state, in line
with the constitution. Besides, his cook and driver are Christians.
“When Babangida eventually dragged
Nigeria into OIC, none of his successors ever attended any of its meeting
because they know to Islamise Nigeria is very difficult, as you need to first
get the constitution amended. That process, you know, is almost impossible.
(President Goodluck Jonathan with former President
of Egypt, Mohammed Morsi during a bilateral meeting)
“But it is on record that in 2013,
President Jonathan, undermining the constitutional limitation, ensured that
Nigeria attended an OIC meeting,” he declared.
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