Nigerians React As ‘Bishops’ Attend Shettima’s Unveiling

Nigerians have taken to social media to react to the presence of Bishops at the unveiling of Senator Kashim Shettima as the vice presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Naija News reports that some alleged Christian clerics attended the unveiling of the former Governor of Borno State as the running mate to the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu.

However, the attendance of the Bishops has attracted various reactions from individuals and groups such as the Catholic Church, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Christians across the country.

Reacting to the outcry in a statement on Thursday, Tinubu denied reports that fake Bishops were hired to the event, stating that the clerics were genuine.

The APC presidential candidate stated that the viral videos and pictures of the clerics at the event were the handiworks of political distractors.

He asserted that the clerics are church leaders who genuinely believe that Nigerians must eschew politics of hatred and religious bigotry and rather embrace politics of peace and nation-building.

Tinubu, however, stated that the outrage over the development on and off social media was an unwarranted distraction.

Nigerians have now taken to the micro-blogging platform Twitter to express their views on the presence of the ‘Bishops’ at the event.

See some of the reactions below.

@fisayosoyombo wrote: “I’ve written it before: A Tinubu presidency will be enormously propaganda-driven. They proved it again today.

“Hiring all sorts of clowns to pose as bishops is a sneak peek into the future. It’s gonna be a govt of propaganda, by propagandists, for the unsuspecting.”

@Letter_to_Jack wrote: “This is a new low, even for APC. Everyday, they go lower because of this desperate attempt to claim power. What sort of disrespect is this towards Christians?”

@FS_Yusuf_ wrote: “Dishonesty is always linked to Tinubu. Those weren’t Bishops but BATshops.”

@UnlimitedEniola wrote: “APC should have hired Hanks Anuku as one of the Unknown Bishops. Tinubu mocked the church, mocked the Christian faith. It was blasphemous to do that and this should not slide, APC and BAT overdressed the mockery.”

@firstladyship wrote: “Everything about APC is SCAM. They rented FAKE BISHOPS to validate their Tinubu & Shettima Muslim-Muslim ticket. Pls identify ur uncles among these FAKE BISHOPS, let’s put them to shame.”

@oluwabory wrote: “I hate this nonsense! This is taken too far….BAT too desperate for this position. Moreover serving the people shouldn’t be by force if the people don’t want you just serve yourself and let the people be!”

@Dann_10 wrote: “This man thinks he can insult our collective intelligence.

“If it were the other way round, & a christian pulled that stunt they did yesterday, then made this ridiculous statement relating to Muslim clergy…an unrest/chaos would have been active by now, becos it’s blasphemous.”

@Oshogweogbolu said: “They say “forget about religion, look at competence and ability”. Yet they pay ‘Men of God’ to attend their unveiling. They know very well that Nigerians take religion seriously hence the need to endorse the Muslim-Muslim ticket with ‘clerics’.“