The fuse about religion, choice of candidate, running mates and why it should matter have ratcheted up on our airwaves in the recent time, but for the wrong reasons. Most of those who are spending quality time participating in the ongoing discourse do so merely for selfish reasons.
The politicians have made religion a big issue in the choice of running mate for presidential candidates, all because of whose bread it butters, and not because of how it serves national interest or how it rescues Nigeria from its current imbroglio.
Those who argue against Muslim-Muslim ticket do so in preference for Muslim-Christian ticket, which is neither here nor there.
At this point, I am of the view that it is already too late for any argument against Muslim-Muslim ticket, because the alternative the proffer, in reality makes no practical difference. This point will be elaborated further below.
First, some thoughts on the role of religion in Nigerian politics. The argument about the role religion plays in Nigerian politics did not start recently. It is not a new issue and did not just emerge in the current countdown for the 2023 presidential elections, even though it has recently received increased media attention.
A look at this at this moment might have been provoked by the ongoing deliberations about the choice of a running mate for the presidential candidates of the major political parties. Therefore, this all important factor in our politics is now employed by political actors to advance their positions and political interests.
These running mates may even already be announced even before you read this piece, but it is not why I am writing on the issue. The messages and issues raised in this article are as important for how this choice of running mates should be made as well as how the running of this country should have been before now.
Why the mixed view from the North? The views from the North on this very important issue of religion as a political consideration has not been the same since the issue become a hot and topical matter. There are those who think it matters, while some think it does not and should be ignored.
These divergent positions have been argued for and against by the high and the mighty in this region of the country. It is no longer a discussion left for some clergy during worship hours in the churches and mosques.
It is also no longer just a matter left for discussion by those who gather around newspaper vendor stands across the country. Everyone is now interested in the matters of religion and what role it should play in the choice of candidates and running mates for political parties.
This is especially since after the end of party primaries that elected the presidential flag bearers of the major political parties – the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC and the major opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
El Rufai, the current governor of Kaduna State was the first major Northern politician known to have publicly waded into this matter, and this was just immediately after the APC convention that elected Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the presidential candidate of the ruling party.
The Kaduna State governor spoke on Channels Television during the Politics Today program. In a direct question about the possibility of APC fielding a Muslim-Muslim ticket in the 2023 presidential election, El-Rufai suddenly became philosophical.
The smart talking and highly cerebral governor, who himself is a Muslim, went educating the viewers on why competence and capability should be the watchword.
He completely downplayed the issue of religion as a factor, while ferociously, but also very rigorously making his case why religion should never be in consideration in the choice of candidates or running mates.
He said, “I don’t think we should be looking at religion. We want to develop this country. When I get into a plane, I don’t ask the religion of the pilot. When I go to the hospital, I don’t ask for the doctor’s religion of the doctor, I just want to get well. I just want to get to my destination when in an aircraft.
“The way the media and many irresponsible people try to inject religion into politics and governance is sad and pathetic, and will not take us anywhere.
“Nigeria is at the crossroads. We face very serious dangers in security and economic meltdown. Global issues are affecting us and all people are concerned with as far as who will be President or Vice President is concerned is religion. It’s so sad.
“It’s not our religion that will solve our problems. It’s the people, who are competent and capable, that will address Nigerians’ problems, unite this country and put it on a progressive path,” he added.
The NEF concurs. Again, the spokesperson of the Northern Elders Forum, NEF repeated similar views on the same Politics Today program on Channels TV, some days later, precisely on Tuesday.
The NEF spokesperson, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed said the following:
“Ordinary Nigerians don’t care. The politicians are playing a game with the faith, intelligence and future of our people.
“It becomes a factor only during elections,”.
“We have had situations where people have been vulnerable and they have been attacked; all those have nothing to do with faith. Will those attacks seize because somebody of a particular faith is the Vice President or President?” he queried.
Then he continued: “This is a game that’s being played by an elite that has to identify faith as a decisive weapon for fighting each other. The pregnant lady who died with four children in the South-East, who was slaughtered, she didn’t die because (President Muhammadu) Buhari is the president. Maybe the people who killed her then just killed her.”
He also said, “If religion was such a dominant factor in terms of how Muslims and Christians live all the time, we will be fighting each other every single day. We will be fighting over ‘I didn’t get anything because I’m a Muslim.’”
“Sometimes in a few instances, like we have seen in the last few years in Adamawa, Gombe and Bauchi, they involve Muslims and Christians. If you go down to the bottom of it, there’s nothing to do with the church or the mosque; it has to do with some communal issues,” he said.
Going further, the NEF spokesperson also said: “I’m telling you, ordinary Nigerians do not consider the faith of leaders now as central to the way they exist. We have been taught some terrible lessons from recent leaders who may have benefitted from religious politics but have abandoned the people with who they share the same faith, I think people are wiser now.
“The north doesn’t belong to Muslims, it belongs to Muslims and Christians and if a political party is willing to field a northerner because he believes he’s the most competent person to get a ticket, then why not.
“In Kaduna state, which had a governor who won and the Christian population is in the minority. Late (Patrick Ibrahim) Yakowa, he was voted as a governor, he was from Southern Kaduna, he became a governor, he died in a plane accident and Kaduna is the frontline for all, no religious conflict that we had.”
“I haven’t seen anybody that said I got an advantage as a Christian because I have a senior pastor in the Redeemed Church who’s a Vice President of Nigeria,” he added.
Well said, but something is missing. What is it? These two individuals who are no doubt northern leaders in their own rights, no doubt made thought provoking arguments. They both sounded very convincing, almost, yes almost.
Almost because they were speaking not to Nigerians, but to their base – the northern Muslims, whose interest they seek to protect at all cost, even against a national interest, if that exists anymore.
They were not speaking to Nigerians, nor were they by any means even convinced themselves that they were arguing to sell their views to Nigerians. Channels TV might have a national coverage, but the idea Governor El-Rufai and Baba-Ahmed were defending has no national value, not by any inclination at all, and they know it.
In ideal society, their idea may have a place, but Nigeria is no close to an ideal society. Not now, not anytime soon. This is exactly what is missing in their proposition – location and timing.
Nigeria is currently led by a Muslim bigot of Fulani extraction, whose 7 years of superintending the national government have brought nothing but fire and brimstone on the people of this country.
Muhammadu Buhari`s regime is characterized by all forms of criminality, deaths, hardship, hunger, deprivation and morning and these are spread nationwide, from the North to the South.
The root course of all this has been the activities of Fulani headers that have unleashed indescribable violence on every part of this country and everything Buahri and his Fulani cabals have done can only be described as a scratch on the problem.
To even name the problem was impossible for the government led by a Muslim president like Muhammadu Buhari.
Fulani headers are international reorganized as one of the deadliest terrorist group globally, yet Buhari could not call them terrorist, but was quick to designated and outlaw a peaceful organization like the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Reason – simply because he is a Fulani Muslim. One question for the duo of Governor El-Rufai and Baba-Ahmed and anyone who agrees with their proposition that religion should not be a factor in choice of candidate.
The question is – would these terrorist Fulani headers have had the same almost free reign of terror if there is a Christian president with real power in charge at Aso Rock? The answer is a NO, and unarguably so.
It could be argued that Buhari has a Christian Vice President who is even a pastor of a popular church. On this score, I refer to what I said earlier that the alternative those who argue against a Muslim-Muslim ticket proffer, which is – Muslim-Christian ticket, in reality makes no practical difference.
Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Buhari`s vice is the pastor of Redeem Christian Church of God (RCCG), a popular Nigerian Pentecostal church. That is not all. Prof. Osinbajo is also a renowned lawyer and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN. Yet, members of his RCCG denomination have been murdered in cold blood by these Fulani terrorists and Islamic fanatics.
What has the Vice President been able to do? The answer is NOTHING. So, to some extend, the NEF spokesperson, Baba-Ahmed has a point when he said: “I haven’t seen anybody that said I got an advantage as a Christian because I have a senior pastor in the Redeemed Church who’s a Vice President of Nigeria,”
However, he was entirely mischievous when he tried to apply this same perception on Muslim Buhari whose presidency has emboldened Islamic terrorists in Nigeria. The point here therefore is clear – the real power is the presidency and not the vice.
It is therefore inconsequential who the parties chose as running mate. To understand this with clarity look no further than the current Nigerian government and you will find the indices that drives the point home. Vice President Yemi Osibanjo is a case study and it is unfortunate we are where we are.
Nigeria in its present state is not working. It is a failed project and we must accept it. We must stop the self-deceit. We must stop allowing these politicians that mislead the docile populace with their selfish battles on how to butter their breads at the detriment of the people.
The fuse about Muslim-Muslim ticket or Muslim-Christian ticket is predicated on no true national values, but on personal interest around the sharing of political power by the political elites.
A Muslim-Muslim or Muslim-Christian tickets are two sides of the same coin as long as the real power resides with the Muslim president. The discussion now should be on how Nigeria can be reworked from the scratch or balkanized into better viable components.
Written by Williams Ukonu Esq, lawyer and rights advocate. He is a Clariform columnist and a regular commentator on national issues. He tweets @WilliamsUkonu and can be reached at [email protected].
