The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, has advised Nigerian electorate not to die fighting for politicians as the race for the 2023 polls intensifies.
The cleric said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily that politicians are friends struggling to have a share of the ‘national cake.’
According to Kukah, opposition politicians are friends and should not be taken too seriously.
His statement comes 24 hours after the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu; and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) opponent, Atiku Abubakar, teased each other at the private wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, on Monday.
Kukah, the Convener of the National Peace Committee, said supporters of the politicians should learn a lesson from the public exchange of pleasantries between Atiku and Tinubu at the airport in Abuja.
He said the message from the meeting between the two candidates is that their political loyalists should be wise, eschew violence, and not kill themselves for people drinking from the same pool.
Kukah said: “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.
“Supporters of candidates all over the country need to be a bit 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 one another 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.”