Obi not indulging in ‘religious politics’, says media office
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Peter Obi Media Reach (POMR) has debunked claims that former presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has been indulging in religious politics.
In a statement on Thursday signed by the POMR spokesman, Yunusa Tanko, the media arm said it is aware that some persons operating under the guise of civil society, and non-governmental organisations but acting at the behest of some powerful political interests have been deployed to petition and accuse Obi of playing religious politics.
Tanko said the aim of the petitioners is to malign Obi’s purely altruistic motives in supporting underprivileged Nigerians of all faiths.
He said, “The ploy is to erroneously claim that he goes to religious places to carry out political campaigns off-season.
“We should ordinarily ignore such mischievous ploys as they are only intended to distract attention from Mr Obi’s patriotic and compassionate position.
“For the avoidance of doubt and the protection of the gullible in our midst, it has become imperative to restate the truth and the facts.
“Peter Obi understands fully the constitutional dictates of separation of church/mosque and state and that Nigeria is an undisputed secular state.
“Nonetheless, his primary concern in and out of public office has always been to pursue the welfare of the underprivileged in society whom he believes should have a better life given the abundant human and natural resources bestowed on this country by God.
“His acts of philanthropy and altruism transcend politics and religion.
“The organizations that oversee the two dominant religions in the country, Islam and Christianity by their doctrines and concepts of charity are closer to the poor in our midst and naturally attract the generosity of kind hearts like Mr. Peter Obi.
“Peter Obi’s visit to Churches and Mosques is purely prompted by his urge to help the less privileged and has nothing to do with political campaigns.”
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Tanko said that in those places, Obi gave messages of hope to lift the spirit of the downtrodden and never talked about politics, nor called anyone names.
Giving an instance, he said that during Ramadan, Obi visited some praying centres in the North and South breaking fast with Muslim faiths and dolling some items to help ameliorate their sufferings and even went further to provide basic amenities such as water in some communities.
He added, “Similarly, he also visited some churches during the Christian Holy Week and celebrated Easter with prisoners and in all he delivered a message of hope to the people.
“What remains an undisputed fact, is that Peter Obi’s charity work predates politics and he would never be intimidated to change this personal disposition, which he believes is an assignment for him from his creator.
“We, therefore, urge the public to ignore any insinuations of co-mingling politics and religion; and see them as a grand design to limit Mr. Obi’s freedom of movement and citizenship welfare action.
“Narrow-minded political agents are only embarrassed that Mr Obi’s transparent patriotism and compassionate commitment to the common good of all Nigerians have been self-evident.
“Through these visits and acts of undivided fellowship with all Nigerians, Mr. Obi has come across as Nigeria’s foremost patriot and change agent.
“His visits to the places where Nigerians feel the hurt, he is exposing the enormity of unmet needs and unfulfilled promises across the nation as well as the acute failure of our selfish national elite in addressing proactively the needs of the underprivileged in our society. Obi’s preoccupation now is with the poor not politics.”