Much ado about APC’s Muslim–Muslim presidential ticket

 

It’s the season of politics and a lot of intrigues are afloat. The most trending news now is the choice of the running mate to the All Progressives Congress standard bearer, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Since the unveiling of former governor of Borno State, Senator Kashim Shettima, as his running mate, many Christians have been expressing shock and disdain at the choice of another Muslim to complement and balance the nomination. To some of the critics of this decision, it goes to confirm that there is an ‘Islamisation’ agenda in the country where all Christians will be forced to accept Islam.

Since this news broke last Sunday, I have been on several media platforms to discuss it. These include Spectrum Television, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State and Trust TV, Abuja. To my own mind, as insensitive as this nomination seems, bursting veins over a same faith ticket is needless. While I agree that given our plurality and diversity, the choice of a Christian would have been better in order to guarantee inclusion and douse religious tension. However, we must know that religion, tribe and ethnicity are not considered important as qualification criteria to contest for the office of the President in Nigeria.

According to Section 84 (3) of the Electoral Act, 2022, “A political party shall not impose nomination qualification or disqualification criteria, measures, or conditions on any aspirant or candidate for any election in its constitution, guidelines, or rules for nomination of candidates for elections, except as prescribed under sections 65, 66, 106, 107, 131, 137, 177 and 187 of the 1999 Constitution.”

Of interest to me in this discourse is section 131 of the 1999 Constitution which states that “a person shall be qualified for election to the office of the President if – (a) he is a citizen of Nigeria by birth; (b) he has attained the age of forty years; (c ) he is a member of a political party and is sponsored by the political party: and (d) he has been educated up to at least the School Certificate level or its equivalent.” These criteria are also the same for vice presidential candidate.

The ultimate goal of political contests is to win elections.  The APC has done what its think-tank believes will enhance its chances of retaining the presidency in 2023. First, the party decided to shift power to Southern Nigeria, hence the emergence of Bola Tinubu as the standard bearer. In the spirit of give and take, it has to do something to appease or placate the ‘North’ which has majority Muslim population. Even the choice of Shettima from the North-East is strategic. It was done to deny the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, any undue home advantage given the fact that he is from Adamawa State, a neighbouring state to Borno where Shettima comes from.  As it stands now, the six North East states are evenly divided between APC and PDP. Gombe, Yobe and Borno states are controlled by the APC governors, while Adamawa, Bauchi and Taraba states are under the control of the PDP.

Out of the seven states in the North-West, only Sokoto State is under the control of the PDP. The rest – Zamfara, Kebbi, Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, and Kaduna – have APC governors. Coming to the North Central region, only Benue, out of the six states in the region, is under a PDP governor. Plateau, Niger, Nasarawa, Kogi and Kwara states are all APC controlled states. In essence, Northern Nigeria is a safe zone for the APC but given the fact that it has majority Muslim population; the APC has to ensure that its members do not embark on protest vote to the opposition party, especially the PDP. The cold fact is that a political party that hopes to win must be strategic in its thinking and action. APC has done what it knows will deliver the bulk of the votes to it in the 2023 presidential election. No law has been broken and no illegality has been committed. Politics and morality are like oil and water; they do not mix.

Come to think of it, this hullabaloo does not happen at the sub-national level. I remember that in the First Republic (1960 – 1966), the Western region was under the leadership of Christians. I mean, Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo, who was the first Premier and his deputy, Chief Samuel Akintola, were both Christians and the sizeable Muslim community in the Western region did not frown at it. Even when Awolowo came to the centre as the leader of opposition and Chief Akintola took over as Premier, his then deputy, Chief Fani Kayode, was also a Christian.

Fast forward to the Second Republic, the first Executive Governor of Oyo State, Chief Bola Ige, was a Christian the same way his deputy, Chief Sunday Afolabi, was a Christian. In neighbouring Lagos State, while Alhaji Lateef Jakande, a Muslim was the governor in the Second Republic, his then deputy, Alhaji Rafiu Jafojo, was likewise a Muslim. Of course, 30 years ago, at the national level, Chief MKO Abiola chose Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, a fellow Muslim, as running mate under the Social Democratic Party and heaven did not fall. I, however, must state that then we did not have the threat of insurgency as currently posed by Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province.

I stumbled upon these instructive statistics in the course of researching for this write up. It is titled “Facts on religious balancing of joint electoral tickets in Nigeria”. One of the facts states that out of the 36 states of the federation, there are 19 Christian Governors and 17 Muslim Governors. Another fact states that in the South, there are 16 Christian Governors and only 1 Muslim Governor ( Osun State).The third fact states that  out of the 19 states in the North, there are only 3 Christian Governors ( Taraba, Benue and Plateau) while there are 16 Muslim Governors. The fourth fact is that in the South, there are 14 Christian Deputy Governors and only 3 Muslim Deputy Governors (i.e. Lagos, Oyo and Ogun).

These stats show that there are more Christian Governors than there are Muslims. Furthermore, in Ondo, Ekiti and Edo states, where both the governors and deputy governors are Christians, there hasn’t been any cry of marginalisation from the Muslim community.  Like I said earlier, the APC’s choice of a same faith standard bearer is believed by the majority of the party members to be a masterstroke to woo voters and win the election.

At this point in our nation’s history, our main concern going into 2023 general elections should be about who can deliver on good governance. Nigeria, at present, is being badly managed; hence the prevalence of insecurity, high cost of living, unbridled corruption, infrastructural deficit, ethno-religious violence and many more. What we need is a choice of fresh hands that will fix our problem. When a child goes to school, he or she does not complain about the religious belief of his or her teacher, except perhaps it’s a missionary school. The same way a sick patient never bothers about the religious belief of his or her doctor because the most important consideration is healing from the sickness. That is why Nigerians should think less of the religious persuasion of our leaders, but their competence and ability to fix the nation’s myriads of problems.  In any event, those who are displeased by the same faith presidential ticket of the APC have other political parties to choose from.