The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, has warned political supporters not to kill themselves in order to show their support for their candidates.
Opposition politicians, according to the septuagenarian priest, are friends vying for a piece of the national cake and should not be taken seriously.
Kukah spoke on Channels Television on Tuesday, just hours after the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, bantered at the private wing of the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport in Abuja on Monday.
Kukah, the Convener of the National Peace Committee, said political fanatics should take a lesson from Tinubu and Atiku’s public exchange of pleasantries.
According to him, the message of the banter is that political supporters of both frontline presidential candidates for the 2023 election should be wise, avoid violence, and avoid killing themselves for people who drink 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 stated that political supporters “must understand that these politicians know themselves,” despite their grandstanding and posturing.
As a result, he advised supporters of candidates across the country to be “a little more restrained and wise.”
“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 quarreling, 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,” he said.
