The Nigerian presidential election is three weeks away. One of the major political parties in the race is running on a same-religion ticket. In this report, Diademng’s Editor-In-Chief, Paul Dada, examines the issue.
On the 25th day of October, 2022, an unprecedented development and what would have looked like a taboo, a few years before then, happened. Rishi Sunak, a practising Hindu of Indian origin, became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, a historically and traditionally protestant “Christian” country.
Sunak became the UK PM after his predecessor, Liz Truss was compelled by circumstances to resign having spent only 44 days in office. As of the time Sunak became the chief resident of 10, Downing Street, events and developments in the UK had thrown religion and ethnicity to the back burner with regard to politics and national progress.
But the reverse is the case in Nigeria. One of the frontline candidates in the presidential election scheduled to hold on February 25th, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, is a Muslim who has Senator Kashim Shettima another Muslim as his running mate. This development has generated no small measure of furore in some quarters.
But the reverse is the case in Nigeria. One of the frontline candidates in the presidential election scheduled to hold on February 25th, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, is a Muslim who has Senator Kashim Shettima another Muslim as his running mate
But the presentation of a Muslim-Muslim ticket by a political party is not a novelty in Nigeria. During the botched Third Republic, business mogul and philanthropist, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola who was the presidential flagbearer of the Social Democratic Party chose Alhaji Babagana Kingibe as his running mate. Eyebrows were raised. But Abiola assured the Christian community that he meant well. In the famous June 12, 1993 election, Abiola in spite of the SDP’s Muslim-Muslim ticket, was coasting to victory ahead of Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention who had chosen an Igbo Christian, Sylvester Ugoh as his running mate.
But for the sorely-upsetting annulment of that election by the then ruling military junta headed by General Ibrahim Babangida, Abiola would certainly have been declared as the winner by the Professor Humphrey Nwosu-led National Electoral Commission. But that was 1993. The social situations in Nigeria in 2023 have changed from what they used to be.
Many Nigerians would aver without blinking that the nation has become more polarised along religious and ethnic lines than she ever was. The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukak lamented this situation last year in his Easter message.
He said: “Here, the Buhari administration has sadly divided our people on the basis of ethnicity, religion, and region, in a way that we have never witnessed in our history. This carefully choreographed agenda has made Nigerians vulnerable and ignited the most divisive form of identity consciousness among our people”.
Kukah also said: “Religious leaders must face the reality that here in Nigeria and elsewhere around the world, millions of people are leaving Christianity and Islam. While we are busy building walls of division with the blocks of prejudice, our members are becoming atheists but we prefer to pretend that we do not see this. We cannot pretend not to hear the footsteps of our faithful who are marching away into atheism and secularism. No threats can stop this, but dialogue can open our hearts”.
A survey carried out in 2022 revealed that 81 per cent of Nigerians were comfortable with their dual identity of being both Nigerian and from their ethnic group. While 36 per cent were comfortable with being both Nigerian and members of ethnic groupings, 35 per cent identified more with their ethnic groups. But only 10 per cent felt more Nigerian than ethnic.
Earlier in January, a group, the Christian Recovery Alliance of Nigeria (CRAN) in a communique, expressed concern that Nigeria was deeply divided along ethnic and religious lines.
The group stated this in a communique issued at the end of its strategic discourse for Christians in Strategic Political Leadership for Recovery of Nigeria (CSPL) held at Makurdi, Benue State.
The communique which was jointly signed by Qrisstuberg Amua, Gideon Doo Inyom and Brahms Ikyuan, said, “The country must avoid the Lebanon Trap and the key to success on this is in how well Christians will organise. That the consequences for missing this opportunity for we Christians and our children are too high; thus, Christians must think globally and act locally, never forgetting that everything is about statecraft, stealth, blood, money, organisation and power.”
The disenchantment shown to the announcement of Shettima as Tinubu’s running mate came from both lowly and highly placed Nigerians including those known to have been allies of the APC strongman. Notable among them is former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Babachir Lawal.
The disenchantment shown to the announcement of Shettima as Tinubu’s running mate came from both lowly and highly placed Nigerians including those known to have been allies of the APC strongman.
Lawal and other members of the APC Northern Christian Leaders who include former Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara; a former Kogi State Deputy Governor; Simon Achuba; Albert Atiwurcha; Doknan Sheni; Mela A. Nunge, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN); Ishaya Bauka, a retired general; Ibrahim Haruna; and Leah Olusiyi, have vowed not to support the Tinubu-Shettima ticket. Lawal has particularly endorsed the Labour Party candidate, Mr. Peter Obi an Igbo Christian who has a northern Muslim candidate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed as his running mate.
Tinubu has maintained that his choice of Shettima was not religiously motivated. He declared that Shettima, a former governor of Borno State and a political juggernaut in the southeast, was chosen for noble reasons.
“My choice of Shettima is borne out of the urgent need to address the challenges facing the country and Shettima possesses strong leadership abilities which he exhibited when he was the governor of Borno State. I wanted a progressive government that was why I selected Shettima.
“We have urgent challenges that do not depend on religious leanings but on the best of hands that can address it,” Tinubu said to the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria, recently.
If feelers from the huge crowds at many campaign rallies of the APC and the teeming support which Tinubu has ostensibly gathered, are anything to go by, it would mean that many Nigerians have put the issue of the Muslim-Muslim ticket behind them or are unbothered by it.
If feelers from the huge crowds at many campaign rallies of the APC and the teeming support which Tinubu has ostensibly gathered, are anything to go by, it would mean that many Nigerians have put the issue of the Muslim-Muslim ticket behind them or are unbothered by it.
National Co-spokesperson of the Coalition of United Political Persons, Comrade Adebayo told Diademng said that APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket could significantly affect the outcome of the election result of the election.
He said: “Ordinarily, considering Nigeria’s sociopolitical configurations especially with what is seen as an overwhelming leaning towards the Muslim by the outgoing administration, one would have thought that a Muslim-Muslim ticket was a no-go area. But here we are. Tinubu seemed to have found himself in a strategic dilemma and he made a choice that puts power expediency above political correctness. My opinion is that the Muslim-Muslim ticket will definitely take a large chunk of votes from the APC especially in the South.
“Another factor of electoral diminishing return of that ticket is the choice of running mate. Shettima has a lot of baggage when it comes to issues surrounding the Boko Haram terrorists because he is seen, correctly or otherwise, as an enabler of the terrorists. Remember that one-time most wanted terrorist, Kabiru Sokoto, was found in the Borno Government House when Shettima was governor and no satisfactory answer has been gotten from the governor and his handlers on that incident till date. Moreover, I’m yet to find a record of where the former governor personally cleared himself on the matter.
“Also being from the Kanuri stock of the Northeast and not a Fulani from the Northwest may make the APC lose a lot of votes to the advantage of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar whose popularity is growing seriously in the North. Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Christian Community is yet to forgive him too for his action in the aftermath of the lynching of Deborah Samuel Yakubu in May last year in Sokoto.
“We cannot run away from the reality that the Muslim-Muslim ticket is not a popular choice in today’s Nigeria especially in the South but it may not stop Asiwaju from winning the elections if his campaign gets its acts right. The final outcome remains unpredictable”.
Notable lawyer and current affairs commentator, Monday Ubani in his reaction told Diademng said Nigeria’s problems are far bigger than considerations of Muslim/Muslim ticket, and that that stage may have been passed considering present stage reached in campaigns and electioneering. He, however, noted that a lot of people are not likely to vote for a Muslim/Muslim ticket, especially some Christians who see it as a no go area. For him, what should really matter is the competence of the candidates that have been thrown up, the state of their health, their antecedents, and their character. He emphasized the need to vote in a leader, who will be able to speak on the global stage to the country’s advantage, while equally addressing internal matters competently. “Those are the criteria we should be dealing with concerning the elections,” said Ubani.
Additional Report: By Funsho Balogun
