Adedokun Waliyu 
Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, has cautioned the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, over his condemnation of All Progressives Congress (APC)’s choice to field a Muslim-Muslim ticket in the 2023 presidential election.
This was contained in the statement issued by the Kano State Commissioner for Information, Mallam Muhammad Garba, on Wednesday, July 13, 2022.
The statement quoted Ganduje as urging Babachir, Christian party members, and other Nigerians “to be mindful of their utterances, especially on religious matters and support the APC for quality leadership that will deliver the country from its challenges,” The Punch reports.
The governor gave the assurance that APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket would not in anyway result in the neglect of Nigerian Christians.
The statement also addressed claims attributed to the former SGF, that the Ganduje Foundation, a philanthropic organization, was being used by him to allegedly force some Christian faithful to join Islam.
Garba described the comment as “totally false considering that, while there is no compulsion in religion, Islam gave individuals the freedom to choose their own religion, and also provided non-Muslims with considerable economic, cultural and administrative rights.”
He insisted that the foundation has never at any time forced any Christian or non-believer to embrace Islam because such act negated the teachings of Islam, but stated that people are called to Islam at their wish just as the missionaries go to villages in Kano to invite non-believers to embrace Christianity.
He insisted that the foundation has never at any time forced any Christian or non-believer to embrace Islam because such act negated the teachings of Islam, but stated that people are called to Islam at their wish just as the missionaries go to villages in Kano to invite non-believers to embrace Christianity.
Ganduje said it was “unfortunate that at a time when the country need to be united for national development and religious tolerance, a man of Babachir’s caliber, who is highly respected, would spread falsehood without much consideration to his position in the All Progressives Congress and closed relationship with the party’s flagbearer, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
He argued that the foundation’s activities has shown that it’s not faith-based “but purely philanthropic in which case, non-Muslims also stand to benefit from the services it renders.”
The governor explained that the Ganduje Foundation “was set up about 40 years ago and is engaged in philanthropic, humanitarian and charitable activities that included medical, support and assistance to the needy in the society, particularly the orphans and the physically challenged, medical outreach to attend to those with diabetes, hypertension, malaria, dental as well as ante-natal and maternal care.”
According to him, the foundation has, since its establishment, built many schools, healthcare centres, distributed free school uniforms and instructional materials to new intake in primary schools, construction of boreholes and mosques.
