The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has urged religious and political leaders to exercise restraint in their public statements, following controversial comments by Islamic cleric, Sheikh Yahya Jingir, in support of President Bola Tinubu’s Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket.

Chairman of CAN in the 19 Northern States and the Federal Capital Territory, Joseph Hayab, made the call on Monday during an appearance on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief.

Hayab was reacting to a video circulating on social media in which Jingir urged Muslims to support Muslim-Muslim tickets in future elections and criticised those opposed to the political arrangement.

Jingir, while speaking at a campaign event in Kano State in support of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, described President Tinubu as his “political hero” for promoting the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket.

He said he was a strong advocate of the arrangement and urged Muslims to obtain their Permanent Voter Cards and mobilise ahead of future elections.

The cleric also used the term “infidels” in referring to non-Muslims who oppose Muslim-Muslim tickets and urged his audience to “show the infidels their limit” at the polls.

Reacting, Hayab said the use of derogatory religious language transformed what could have been a political campaign message into an offensive statement capable of deepening religious tension.

According to him, Jingir could have advocated for Muslims to support Muslim candidates without resorting to language that insults or alienates people of other faiths.

“We have always been tolerant of this, and I want to take us back.

“We have had the worst of these statements. But we have to be moderate. We have to be careful when we come to public space.

“Honestly speaking, if Jingir had said, ‘look, let’s vote for our Muslim brothers to show we are strong’, it wouldn’t have been offensive than adding the term ‘infidel’.

“The moment he went out of just campaigning and insulting, then it turns the story different,” Hayab said.

The CAN leader stressed that Christians had endured similar statements for years, but urged Nigerians to approach religious and political disagreements with greater restraint.

“But we are saying this as Christians that we’ve had this for a long time, we’ve suffered this for a long time, we are familiar with this for a long time,” he added.