“The individuals who were dressed in different colours of what many have described as hurriedly made costumes, raised eyebrows on account of the way most of them conducted themselves during and after the event.”
By Saidu Idris
365daily – The maxim that a ‘hood doesn’t make a monk’, received a hilarious depiction in Abuja on Wednesday, June 20, 2022, with the backlash over the controversial appearance of some “Christian clerics” at the unveiling of Senator Kashim Shettima as the vice presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The individuals who were dressed in different colours of what many have described as hurriedly made costumes, raised eyebrows on account of the way most of them conducted themselves during and after the event.
Viral videos captured some of the fake clerics dressing up and receiving money in a car park of a popular hotel in Abuja.
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Dino Malaye, mockingly refered to the contentious clerics as “Bishops of APC Dioceses.”
Their viral videos have been eliciting wide spread outrage in the polity, making many to allege that the questionable clerics were procured from the streets to hoodwink the public into believing that the APC Muslim – Muslim ticket was being supported by the Christian Association of Nigeria.
Already, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has dismissed them as impostors who were only acting a role scripted by their pay masters.
A journalist, Jaafar Jaafar, expressing disgust over the absurd drama, wrote on his Facebook page, “The cassock doesn’t make a bishop. This is an epic blunder to dress up APC’s mono-creed ticket.”
A popular newspaper columnist and public affairs analyst, Farooq Kperogi, said: “The fake bishops’ misadventure at Tinubu’s “unveiling” of Shettima as his running mate is such a sophomoric and tragicomical self-own.
“It both needlessly aggrandized the lack of religious pluralism in the APC presidential ticket it was supposed to conceal and overshadowed the main event itself. What sort of gluttony for self-ridicule is that?
“I just watched a video that purports to be some of the fake bishops taking off their robes and sharing the money they were allegedly paid for their “service,” and I couldn’t control the burst of deep, loud, hearty laughter that escaped from my mouth.”
Another social media user wrote, “When someone attends a public function and he is deliberately hiding himself from public glare
… note that something is amiss.”
Another wrote: “Fake Bishops, Fake News, Fake projects, Fake soldiers, Fake Police, Fake statistics, Fake minister. A nation on a cruise!”
Yet another, “By continually reinventing lies, the APC/Tinubu has managed to sustain Nigeria as the epicentre of comedy in the world.”
A civil and political rights activist, Deji Adeyanju, queried, “Religion does not matter in a multi-religious nation but you had to get unknown bishops to legitimise your Muslim-Muslim ticket. Who’s fooling who?
“What is even paining me is why wasn’t Portable given a cassock to be among the Agbado Bishops?”
A senior journalist and media manager, Harry Iwuala, also pointed out: “Who else observed that there was no interaction amongst the Shettima ordained Bishops, all man just face destination, no discussions, no look of familiarity on their faces.”
Amidst the uproar, the spokesperson of the Tinubu’s campaign organisation, Bayo Onanuga, has declared that the controversial clerics were not fake bishops.
According to him, “They are church leaders who genuinely believe that Nigerians must eschew politics of hatred and religious bigotry and rather embrace politics of peace and nation building.”