Nigerians React to Atiku's Political Adviser's Character Assassination of CAN President, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor

It did not come as a shock, the ridiculousness of the Twitter messages Bashir Yusuf, senior political adviser to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, that is. After all, Yusuf is not known for candor nor decency. What was shocking was his ill-advised decision to pick as a target for his latest character assassination a Christian religious leader, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor.

Mr. Bashir Yusuf, reeling in the bitterness of having run a failed campaign which ended in the humiliating defeat of his political principal at the PDP presidential primaries last year, has chosen to adopt the destructive pattern of using the combined tools of slander and falsehood. Yusuf decided to use the words of Oritsejafor where he spoke of redemption and the power of God to reach even the most lost and use them for His work. In his testimony, Oritsejafor had confessed of a living a life saddled with bitterness of a neglected childhood and the hellish road it took him down, where he experimented with drugs and was on the verge of self-destructing when God's mercy reached him and he was set free from addiction and bitterness and began the path to service to God.

Bashir Yusuf, in seeking to discredit this revered Christian leader extracted bits of this inspiring testimony of redemption and cast them as the current position or disposition of Oritsejafor.

Yusuf's latest diversionary and defamatory tactic has attracted widespread condemnation from prominent Nigerians. Commenting on Yusuf's latest diatribe, Professor Pat Utomi said, "I deeply regret that at a time when serious statesmen have a duty to contain the forces of anarchy we are using the assassination of characters of religious leaders to score cheap political points. While I respect the right of people to express themselves, I think that impugning the reputation of the CAN President is unwise and not very thoughtful."

Commenting specifically on the content of Oritsejafor's testimony which Yusuf mischievously attempted to ridicule, Utomi said, "The point to make here is that at the heart of the Christian message is God's mercy and His constantly calling people back to himself. Any knowledgeable person in Christian tradition will therefore realize that conversion is a strength rather than a weakness." He went futher to say, "I will like to urge all of us to see the challenges in the northern part of Nigeria more as a failure of economic and political policies which have left so many people poor and therefore amenable to be recruited for anti social causes rather than religious insurrection. As leaders we all have a duty to focus on correcting that problem rather than inflaming passions that can do damage. Such comments tend to feed the ideology behind groups like Boko Haram and the ignorance many."

A Christian cleric who chooses to remain anonymous also weighed in on Yusuf's distasteful and dishonest display, "While I agree with what Utomi has said, I have to add that the problem itself is religious at heart before it is political and economic. For instance, Bin Laden did not become a terrorist because he was poor. No! He was rich. He was radicalized by other means." He adds, "So I think people are being diplomatic when they say that the problem is economic or political. They know that the problem is religious and religion is being used against to further political interests."

"Now look at this fellow Mallam Bashir Yusuf publicly insulting the person of the President of CAN. Thank God Pastor Ayo is a man of God. He has not retaliated and I am sure wherever he is, he is praying for Malam Bashir," the Cleric adds. "But ask yourself what would have been the consequence if a prominent South Christian political figure like Bashir insulted the Sultan of Sokoto. Do you think someone like Bashir and his ilk would have taken it lying low?"

"I give you another example. Somewhere I read where Malam Elrufai public broadcasted a curse on supporters of President Jonathan. Now reverse this and say that someone like Donald Duke cursed or broadcast a curse on supporters of General Buhari, what do you think would be the consequence?" the Cleric continues with disbelief. "This is getting to an intolerable state where there are two laws for two types of Nigerians. In 1995 for instance, Sani Abacha ordered the execution of Ken Saro Wiwa after he was convicted by the Auta led tribunal for the criminal offense of incitement to murder for allegedly saying "deal with them", yet in this country we have people who came out openly to say they would make Nigeria ungovernable for Jonathan if he should win the election. Yet those men and their partners like Malam Bashir Yusif are still stoking the flames of discord. Why?"

When I asked Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor for his reaction to Mallam Bashir Yusuf's statement he simply referred to Proverbs 26:4 "Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself"

Another cleric, Pastor Nosa Olotu opined on the matter thus "I do not think the reaction of certain persons to this escalation of attacks on Christians by Boko Haram is helpful. How can you leave off condemning Boko Haram and then attack the man who leads the Christian body in Nigeria for merely saying that Christians may be forced to defend themselves? So Chrisyians should just be sitting ducks because we want to make Malam Bashir and his likes happy? The other time, the Secretary General of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Buba Galadima, came out unashamedly to tell the BBC that Boko Haram enjoys more support than the government thinks. (click here for Buba Galadima's BBC comments). Who says that type of thing after people have been killed in church on Christmas day by Boko Haram? You do not condemn their activities and you are telling a foreign news service that Boko Haram are popular! Yet Buba Galadima said it and there are no consequences because there are two classes of Nigerians?"