Muslim-Muslim ticket
Jibrin Ibrahim
The Muslim-Muslim Ticket and Religious Mobilisation in Nigeria
Jibrin Ibrahim, Deepening Democracy Column, Daily Trust, 15th July 2022
The Muslim-Muslim ticket chosen by APC presidential candidate Bola Tinubu has generated controversy since 2015 when he sought to be Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate. Today, he is the presidential candidate and therefore got the opportunity to implement what he has canvassed for a very long time. It is clear that Bola Tinubu is not a religious bigot and is therefore not making the choice to achieve a religious objective. He belongs to the group of analysts that believes the 1993 victory of the Abiola-Kingibe, Muslim-Muslim ticket was a winning formula. The argument is that a Yoruba candidate from the Southwest needs the to generate electoral support from the core Northern Muslim electorate to win. The reasoning in the APC camp is that the 2023 elections might be a close call with the Labour Party taking significant southern and Christian votes and Kwankwaso’s NNPP taking a big chunk of the Kano and core Muslim votes.
This is not the only political permutation circulating. Others have argued that there is a significant Christian vote in Northern Nigeria that would be alienated by the option of a Muslim-Muslim ticket. There votes would therefore be lost to the Tinubu APC and go towards Labour Party or Atiku’s PDP might emerge as the beneficiary of their action. This would also have an impact on many Christian majority states and constituencies where Christians enjoy numerical advantage. The danger is that the very long campaign period coming up might have a focus on religious mobilisation along this divide and that would be very bad for the future of Nigerian democracy because essentially, issue-based politics would be thrown under the bus as religious affiliation becomes the key signifier of political choice.
The massive level of heat of heat generated by Tinubu’s proclivity for a Muslim Vice President might seem to suggest that the position is an important one and that therefore the stakes are very high. The current Vice President to Muhammadu Buhari, Professor Yemi Osinbajo is a pastor of the Redeem Christian Church of God and there is no evidence to suggest he was able to use his position to achieve results for the Christian community. The general situation is that Nigerians are very dismissive of the vice-presidential position, often arguing that all powers are in the hands of the president which might not be completely true.
The reason why the Muslim-Muslim ticket generates so much controversy is because what is at stake is not the strategic concerns about winning permutations but real anger within the Christian community of the imbalance in political appointments under President Buhari. Earlier this week for example, the Christian political leaders within the APC in the nineteen (19) Northern States met in Abuja on the 11th of July 2022 to deliberate on the issue of the Party's Muslim-Muslim ticket and its implications to the nation. They argued that the President, the chairman of the party, deputy chairman north, the president of the senate, the speaker and deputy speaker, and now both the presidential candidate and his running mate; etc, are all Muslims. The narrative is the marginalisation of Christian leaders. They also point out that the APC party constitution preamble states that: “will guarantee equal opportunity for all mutual and peaceful co-existence respect and understanding, eliminating all forms of discrimination and social injustice among Nigerian” and that the Muslim-Muslim ticket appears to have violated this provision. They conclude that: “Nigeria is a multi-religious and a constitutional democracy and NOT a theocracy with religion as a major national fault line which cannot be whimsically manipulated without dire political consequences on our peaceful co-existence as a people”.
The former Secretary to the Federal Government, Babachir Lawal, while expressing his anger at the Muslim-Muslim ticket declared: “Now tell me which Christian will vote for APC with the following contraption: Moslem Presidential Candidate (Lagos), Moslem Vice Presidential Candidate (Borno), Moslem National Chairman (Nasarawa), Moslem Deputy National Chairman (Borno), Moslem President (Katsina); Moslem Senate President (Yobe); Moslem Speaker (Lagos); Moslem Deputy Speaker (Plateau) e.t.c. APC the great! Wu na de try woh!” Maybe it is worthwhile reminding ourselves that Chief Obafemi Awolowo of the Unity Party of Nigeria contested the 1979 presidential election with Philip Umeadi as his running mate. Both were Christians and southerners. Way back during the First Republic, Awolowo promoted an electoral alliance for the 1964 general election, the United Progressive Grand Alliance, in which the two main parties were his Action Group and the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons led by Nnamdi Azikiwe, both Southern Christians. After the elections, Azikiwe refused to form a government with Awolowo and linked up with Ahmadu Bello’s Northern Peoples’ Congress. To go back to the 1979 election, Nnamdi Azikiwe, leader of the Nigerian Peoples’ Party also had a Christian-Christian ticket with Professor Ishaya Audu as his vice-presidential contestant. Both were Christians; the latter a pastor while Azikiwe was from the southeast and Audu was from the north.
What is new in Nigeria today is the climate of suspicion and fear over what many Christians see as an Islamization agenda. The emergence of Boko Haram and their Jihadi agenda has always been read to be the spear head of this agenda. At the same time, there has been significant spread of the farmer-herder conflicts and violence which has developed into large scale banditry and mass kidnapping which is also largely seen as another part of the hidden agenda against the Christian community. The dominance of Muslim officers in the command and control of the armed forces and security agencies is often cited as proof of this agenda. It is for these reasons that the Christian community has advocated for the next president to come from the Christian community based on zoning the presidency to the South. The APC elected a Southern Muslim while the PDP elected a Northern Muslim with a Southern Christian running mate. It might well be that these choices were activated by the strategic search for winning combinations but for many within the Christian community, the strategies adapted might also have religious connotations. That is where we are on the matter today. It has become very divisive and significant confidence building measures would be necessary to make the case that there is no hidden agenda against the Christian community.
Cornelius Hamelberg
The UK - Westminster Model is also not a theocracy - and that is true to such an extent that up to now we have not heard the words religion or the religious identity of any of the politicians vying for the post of Prime Minister after Boris Johnson, being mentioned even once.
True too, the United Kingdom is not Nigeria, or like Nigeria, although there is a separation of church and state, of mosque and state, certainly no marriage between Heaven and Hell in either country, but many inter-faith marriages about which Christians complain about being “unevenly yoked.”
So, without any problem and without any communiques released by Christian leaders of the Labour Party ( or the Consvervative Party or the Church of England for that matter, Sadiq Khan, ostensibly a Muslim of Pakistani pedigree was duly elected Lord Mayor of London, which is predominantly non-Muslim and the capital of the United Kingdom, was elected without causing any religious controversy or problems about power distribution - or fear of Eurabia that the Muslims are taking slowly over the United Kingdom by stealth. For verily, in the map of Eurabia, the UK is identified as “ North Pakistan”(smile). It’s just that - as we can all see, in Nigeria, the Brethren and Sistren are more Catholic than His Holiness the Pope and the way that some of them are shouting, you would think that Boko Haram in league with armed Fulani Herdsmen were about to take over the Vatican or the Heavenly Jerusalem; Forgive me, I’ve just zapped through several drafts of Blake’s The Everlasting Gospel” written about 1818…
If indeed, just as the Communique of the meeting of Christian leaders of Northern Nigeria of the All Progressive Congress ( APC) Party states , “Nigeria is a multi-religious and a constitutional democracy and NOT a theocracy with religion as a major national fault line…” the question that arises is, why then the great hullabaloo about a Muslim-Muslim ticket? That Bola Tinubu will not appoint competent non-Muslims to high office, although he needs the Christian votes in order to get himself elected?
Hopefully, Baba Kadiri can help us out here…
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Dear Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju,
The world is round! Believe it or not it was during my two idyllic days at Runmarö ( as guests of wonderful hosts Julio ( Argentina)and Brita ( Sweden) that I discovered this star from Niger Mammane Sani et son Orgue. I hope that the soothing music puts you in a good mood.
More than ever, the peace and quiet over here makes it imperative that they stop the war in Ukraine, and all the horrendous things happening in Nigeria right now, so that we can all share peace and love.
Sokoto. Once upon a time the great Uthman Dan Fodio, his lineage, his dynasty.
Kano : Fast forward : Shame on the government that banished The Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi
Nigeria: 250 ethnicities
Nigeria was more like indigenous America before the founding fathers arrived
Nigeria became more like the United States after Independence Day 1st October 1960.
Many of Nigeria’s problems, such as “zoning” would have been solved long ago by a National Sovereign Conference and a brand new constitution providing the sort of Federal Umbrella under which everyone would be comfortable and happy. I’m confident about this , especially after hearing all the good news about the world’s largest deposits of Gold being located in ZAMFARA.
Somebody please say “ Allahu Akbar! “
This goldmine should ease the tensions about lessening the stranglehold on the oil fields that are mostly located some distance from the North…
You know how we post-colonial subjects love to ape our former colonial masters and mistresses, nothing funky, just a lot of long winded Victorian style big grammar and all that, and that’s why I choose comparing and contrasting post-colonial Nigeria with today’s going-ons at Westminster , when as a matter of fact that’s why, like a holy marriage vow for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until parted by death, Nigeria chose the US Presidential System, although right now it’s difficult to pin any ideological identity that would separate Nigeria’s two main contenders for POWER, the APC and the PDP , as to which is closer to the US’s Republican Party and which is more like Democrats, which is the elephant and which is the mule, and if it’s the UK that we have in mind, which of those two main Nigerian political parties is like Labour, which is like the Conservatives? Sadly, it's as if the late great Aminu Kano didn't leave any major disciples or apostles as an enduring legacy...
Who in his right mind is going to disagree with you that “There is a world of difference between UK and Nigerian politics.” when Nigeria is obviously on another planet?
The only one among us who I suspect could possibly disagree is Nigerian politician and businessman Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who possibly has that special affinity that seems to ally him with British aristocracy or at least the nouveau riche - and in support of that here’s this juicy bit that was pasted in the public sphere, yesterday , illustrating the witticism that “money talks, bullshit walks”, that from rags to riches, money drives and bullshit works - a true story:
“I studied for my undergraduate degree at a university in Birmingham, from 1996 to 1999. I was a poor kid who had to work daily at the University library during the day and as a security guard at night. A year below me was one of Atiku's sons. This guy was driving a Ferrari when millions of Nigerians were being terrorised by Abacha. We had G.O Adeboye's son in the midst, who was also living it large at the time. Remember Atiku was not even the Vice President then. How did a man who was a senior custom officer manage to have so much wealth that he became a multimillionaire businessman? Nigeria is a vast crime scene. Nigerians do not like to question powerful people. They adore people like Atiku and see people like Adeboye as demi-gods. I guess many Nigerians just want to be rich by all means.”
Your Alhaji Atiku Abubakar may also strongly disagree with your subsequent submission that
“The kind of Islam practised in the UK is also different from the kind practicised in Nigeria's Muslim North. Northern Nigerian Islam and Fulani identity have been weaponised in Nigeria, as both combative and political tools.Islam does not play such a role in UK politics”
I can hear him huffing and puffing that “ Islam is Islam” and that’s when you kindly turn his attention to this question : “What makes Islam so different?” and before he can begin to answer about circumstances of history you turn his attention to Nigeria ; Islamic Terrorism and ask him what he has done about it so far and what he is telling the Muslim and Christian electorate and the Christian and Muslim party faithfuls he would like to to do about it if he is elected Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
I don't feel competent enough to comment on your last four paragraphs and hope that someone like Baba Kadiri could shed some light on that kind of speculation