By Joseph Erunke, Abuja

A socio-political organisation, the Unite Nigeria Group,UNG, has commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Vice President, Kashim Shetimma, for maintaining religious neutrality as Nigeria’s leaders, despite being same religion.

The group maintained that Tinubu’s administratiin has efficiently corrected the erroneous impression that electing leaders from the same religious stock is a threat to Nigeria’s stand as a secular state.

President Tinubu and his vice, faced stiff opposition from Nigerians during the 2023 general election for flying a “Muslim-Muslim ticket’.

But the UNG in a Sallah message jointly signed by the National Convener and the National Assistant Secretary, Sir Peter Okala (JP) and Alhaji Ibrahim Tanimo, respectively, noted that the Tinubu-led administration has proved that the religious background of leaders doesn’t matter as.much as the quality of their leadership.

The group therefore warned against weaponizing religious sentiments by politicians, especially during elections, adding that of denying the country the much needed quality leaders.

According to Okala, religious bigotry has done much more than any other sentiment to divide the country, adding that if “Nigeria must be united as a nation, religious extremism must be jettisoned “.

The statement added that, “in 2023, the current President, Tinubu and his Vice, faced the worst criticism for both Muslims, the country was divided along religious lines which affected the voting pattern but today they have both emerged as Nigeria’s leaders and almost three years after, Nigeria remains a secular state with Nigerians practicing their respective faiths.

The statement read in part,”We should not base our choices of leaders based on religion but rather on the content of the character of these leaders, their experience, records and general profile by so doing we will check the repeated misfortune of electing the wrong people on the platform of religious activism.

“It is also a great disservice to the nation to use religion instead of competence as a parameter for appointments. Religion in Nigeria has been used by mischievous politicians to manipulate Nigerians for their personal gains”.

Okala, rather argued that Nigerias can leverage the country’s rich religious and sociocultural background to thrive as Africa’s largest nation rather than replacing sound judgement with religious emotions.

“The Tinubu’s administration has proved that it is possible to have both a ‘Christian-Christian or Muslim-Muslim ticket and still elect good leaders. It is not the religious group that matters but the quality of the candidates “, the group maintained.