It began as a whisper, hushed tones of such an uncanny possibility were muted in some quarters, some dispelled it as a mere wishful thought, others who weren’t sure of its certainty, saw it as a no big deal thing, afterall you are first a Nigerian before your faith comes into consideration. What started somewhat as a beer parlour gist has become a front burner national discourse, way beyond newspaper stands and beer parlour parliament meetings, the unimaginable uncertainty, has become a realistic reality. On Sunday 10th June 2022, the presidential candidate of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced Senator Kashim Shettima as his running mate for the 2023 presidential elections. Our worst fears had been confirmed, the Muslim-Muslim ticket was indeed happening and now the whispers have transcended into huge voices and the voices into torrents of echoes reverberating all over the country with unfathomable intensity.
The debate about a Muslim-Muslim ticket had stirred the hornet’s nest and attracted so much protagonists and antagonists into the theatre of public discussion. It aroused two broad sets of personalities, on the one hand were ethnic jingoists, religious fanatics, emergency bi partisan activists and traditional institutional champions who branded it a decision from the axis of evil while on the other hand were the objective hordes, self acclaimed unbiased puritans, rational thinkers and professional politicians who see such decision as a product of exigency, a political masterstroke which would declare the election won for the APC before it was even contested.
Would this gamble work? That’s the million dollar question on the lips of most political analysts and enthusiasts. This piece seeks to place the casual observer in the mix, by laying the options on the table for him to make a choice.
To the antagonists of a Muslim Muslim ticket, such a combination by the APC is a recipe for disaster, a daring affront on the religious make up of Nigeria as a secular state, a ticking time bomb with the capacity of tearing the genetic religious set up of the Nigerian state, a ploy by the ruling party to undermine the sensitivities of the Nigerian electorate by railroading it to the reality of an Islamic republic and threaten the continued existence of the Nigerian state. For them, the APC has by its decision cemented the opinions of most Nigerians that it is fuelled by an Islamic ideology, loves the attacks on other faiths especially the clergy on cassocks and by enthroning it in power in 2023 would put the seal on the warrant of death, pain and agony on the Nigerian state. They warn that the political Armageddon that would hit the country if the APC returns with such a demonic combo would have consequences of cataclysmic proportions ever before envisaged in our political history. If President Buhari’s regime was a failure, then that of a Tinubu in 2023, would be failure 2.0.
The proponents of the Muslim-Muslim ticket on the other side of the divide consider their positions as one influenced by the spirit of true patriotism. One that looks beyond the ethnic, religious and social status of every Nigerian and seeks to solidify the idea of what a modern Nigeria should be. For them, where a candidate hails from shouldn’t be a yardstick for determination of competence, a candidate should be judged by their antecedents and their capacity to deliver and not by what church, mosque or shrine they worship. They argued that in the case of the APC, the choice of Shettima, a Kanuri Muslim was more of a strategic political choice given the current political reality. Tinubu is a Muslim from the minority south and it would be suicidal for him to pick a northern christian as his running mate given that the Christian population in the north are in the minority when compared to their Muslim brothers in the same region. They also argue that Tinubu never thought of the religious implications of his decisions because of his antecedents over the years as being a detribalized Nigerian who cares less of who one prays to. They further argue that the candidates of all parties should be judged by their individual capacities, level of exposure, intellect and competence rather than viewing them through the prismatic lenses of ethnicity, religion and social cultural bias.
In closing this piece, one must reiterate that the unity of this country must be prioritized over and above the partisan interests of political movements and opinion leaders. Given the multiethnic, multicultural, and multi religious outlook of the country, our political elite should thoroughly consider the sensitivities of the majority of its citizens and come up with decisions that reflects our cosmopolitan nature as many nations in one.
Whether the APC has shot itself in the foot or brazenly guillotined its political future as the ruling party at the centre is a matter that only Nigerians can decide at the polling booths come 2023. For now the debate rages on.
#EICO
