{"id":97986,"date":"2022-08-11T10:22:17","date_gmt":"2022-08-11T09:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=97986"},"modified":"2022-08-11T10:22:17","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T09:22:17","slug":"muslim-muslim-ticket-pope-francis-not-against-my-appointment-as-dg-lalong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/muslim-muslim-ticket-pope-francis-not-against-my-appointment-as-dg-lalong\/","title":{"rendered":"Muslim-Muslim Ticket: Pope Francis Not Against My Appointment As DG \u2013 Lalong"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Director-General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Organization, Simon Lalong, says he will not resign as the party DG campaign organization.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div id=\"m_-8450866945730223121yMail_cursorElementTracker_1660206738347\">Lalong said that even Pope Francis is not opposed to his appointment<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Lalong, who is also the Governor of Plateau, an ardent Catholic, said the Pope had not told him that accepting to lead the Muslim-Muslim APC presidential ticket was against the tenets of Christianity.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div id=\"m_-8450866945730223121yMail_cursorElementTracker_1660206750762\">Some groups had staged rallies in Abuja, calling on Lalong to reject the offer to serve as the DG of APC presidential campaign organization.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>However, the governor said he would not reject his new appointment just to satisfy the wishes of certain individuals or groups.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201dThe Pope is not angry with my decision to be the DG of the Muslim-Muslim presidential campaign.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cI came back home and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) welcomed me at the airport.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201dThe next day I addressed stakeholders of Plateau and I told them why I\u2019m accepting and then there was jubilation, all of them accepted.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cSo, if you see people talking about me rejecting, I have accepted already \u2013 is not an issue. Some of them have already keyed into it \u2013 I\u2019m a Christian. If you watch my TVC interview I saw, I was born a Catholic, baptized a catholic, confirmed a catholic.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cToday, I went through missionary schools. I was taught by missions I respect my being a Christian.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cI have been given the highest award by the Pope, I still hold that award \u2013 the highest Papal Award, I want people to know, Knight of Saint Gregory the Great, I have it and one day if you want I will wear my uniform and come here. So those who are talking it I don\u2019t even know where they are.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cI hold a Papal night and as a catholic everything we do, we do it and send the advice to the Pope.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThe Pope has not told me that what I\u2019m doing (to accept Director General) is bad \u2013 As a catholic, we take that direction.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cBut, generally as a governor of a State, I\u2019m not responsible to only my faith. I\u2019m responsible to other people who belong to other faiths, who are not even Muslims or Christians\u2019\u2019<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He urged Nigerians to grow up from ethnic or religious sentiments.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Lalong said that he had already accepted the job and there was nothing anybody could do to dissuade him from performing his responsibilities.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Lalong said he was in the Presidential Villa to thank President Muhammadu Buhari for approving the University of Jos as a national cancer centre as well as granting presidential pardon to the former Governor of the state, Joshua Dariye.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>According to him, the people of the State will remain grateful to the president for delivering a lot of democratic dividends to the State.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cMy visit to the President is to come and show him appreciation because of what he has done for Plateau State in the last few months.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201dJust a week or two ago, we just got approval to make the University of Jos a Cancer Centre.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cI saw over N3 billion approved for the institution as a special centre for cancer. So, it\u2019s not a small achievement.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cRecently, the President approved the establishment of an orthopaedic hospital in Jos, Plateau; the only one in North-Central.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cHe also approved the establishment of a Federal Medical Centre in Wase. Another one is the Federal Polytechnic Shendam, which is almost starting this year in October to be precise.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThe president has also approved the conversion of the Federal College of Education, Pankshin, to a Federal University of Education and immediately approved the establishment of another Federal college of Education in the State.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cWe were just celebrating that one then we also heard of the establishment of a Zonal campus of the Nigerian Law School for North-Central in Jos.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cWe cannot have all these achievements and not come and show appreciation to the President,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div id=\"m_-8450866945730223121yMail_cursorElementTracker_1660206680863\"><\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Director-General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Organization, Simon Lalong, says he will not resign as the party DG campaign organization. Lalong said that even Pope Francis is&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Muslim-Muslim Ticket: Pope Francis Not Against My Appointment As DG \u2013 Lalong - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/muslim-muslim-ticket-pope-francis-not-against-my-appointment-as-dg-lalong\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Muslim-Muslim Ticket: Pope Francis Not Against My Appointment As DG \u2013 Lalong - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Director-General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Organization, Simon Lalong, says he will not resign as the party DG campaign organization. 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