ALTHOUGH I am committed to the ideals of my faith and to genuine democracy not the polluted type spiced with hypocrisy, parochial sentiments and betrayal. That should not stop me from commenting on sensitive selfish issues brought to the front burner by ethno-religious bigots in desperation to derail the democracy and unity using the cover of religion or any parochial sentiment for selfish interest.
This piece is a direct response to the Bill proposed by my former National President (NUJ), Senator Smart Adeyemi representing Kogi West in the senate, seeking for a ban on same faith presidential ticket after the 2023 general election.
The Bill was the Senator’s response to the dust raised in sections of the Christian Communities by the decision of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu to pick Sen. Kashim Shettima, a fellow, Muslim as his running mate for the now concluded presidential election which was won by the duo despite the trumpeted hate in Churches and condemnations by drowning bigots and religious terrorists.
I honestly stood to gain nothing supporting the candidature of Bola Ahmed Tinubu or any of those who contested the presidential election because from my rating, they are same characters when in power. That should anyway not be cloud my reasoning on national issues hence this piece.
And that should also not be a source of worry to anyone because it has been my personal opinion built over the years from past political association with uncountable candidates who accessed power but turned the table against most of their sincere and vibrant supporters that risked their lives for the victories.
First, in my brand of interaction, religion, tribe or geographical location has no space to occupy. I interact based on capacity, understanding, sincerity and commitment. Religion and tribe are too a personal affair to play any role in my interactions.
Addressing journalists at a press briefing in Abuja, Sen. Adeyemi displayed a copy of the draft Bill penultimate week, and said the senate was seeking an amendment to Section 84 of the 2022 Electoral Act to make it impossible for any political party to parade two people of the same faith as presidential and vice presidential candidates.
But, erroneously or out of sentiment, the proposed Bill excluded Governors and Deputy Governors, Local Government Chairmen and their deputies, Senate President and the Deputy as well as Speaker House of Representatives and the Deputy. What excluding those from the proposed Bill entails is not far from mockery of the democracy and display of frustration and bigotry from Sen. Smart Adeyemi.
If we want to get it right with all sincerity, the proposed amendment should not be restricted to only the president and the vice. It should affect all elective offices including the local government councils excluding councilors that have no running mates. For instance, in Bayelsa, the running mate to any gubernatorial candidate must be a Muslim. In Sokoto, it should be a Christian and so on.
Again, my former boss the senator forgot to include in his Bill the issue of those we tag as Atheists and Pagans that are in politics and free to vote and be voted for. An Atheist can emerge as a presidential candidate of a party and nominate or pick another Atheist as his running mate which may not be against the ‘amended’ Electoral Act because Atheism is not a religion anywhere.
What of members of the Grail Movement, Buddhists, Confusionists or disciples of Sat Guru Maharaj, Kristina etc? Doing so from the content of Adeyemi’s proposed Bill, will not contravene the ‘amended’ Electoral Act because probably his focus rested on only two religions of Islam and Christianity which amounts to narrow thinking.
According to him, “Section 84 of the Principal Act will be amended by inserting a new subsection 3 which will state thus: “No political party shall nominate candidates of the same religion as presidential and vice presidential candidate after the 2023 election.
When this is accommodated, it will serve as a guide against any oversight such as this in the future as further occurrences will be deemed as a silent policy which is capable of bringing down the fabrics of the nation.” But then, it excludes those free thinkers that abound on the political space while forgetting that Nigeria is constitutionally a secular state.
Coming at a time that a section of the Christian community was at daggers drawn with the APC over what it termed the party’s Muslim/Muslim ticket, it was no surprise that the move was applauded by the likes of former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir David Lawal, former Speaker House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, Sen. Elisha Abbo from Adamawa State and few others who turned the use of same-faith ticket as a campaign tool against the APC presidential candidate into a career.
But well-meaning Nigerians with clear understanding of the progress that inherent in liberating the country from its age-long religious bondage were not impressed including members of the strongest opposition party, PDP and other liberal democrats that gained from the brouhaha.
If anything, the anti-same-faith ticket Bill is a retrogressive one that shows the Kogi Senator’s lack of appreciation of the wise counsel that a government deals best with religion by avoiding any deal with it. It is an instance of a party member thinking at cross purpose with others since both Tinubu and APC had made it clear that the choice of Shettima was informed purely by the need to place competence far above religious sentiments in the search for solutions to the myriad of problems that blocked the country’s march to progress since independence.
The same-faith ticket was a quiet revolution which, was reluctantly allowed to be and thriving, as the beginning of the country’s development into true nationhood devoid of religious sentiment.
With recent developments around the country, no genuine patriot would deny the fact that religion is doing the country more harm than good, and the earlier we play down its importance the better for us all.
In recent times, for instance, Muslims and Christians were up in arms against one another in even private secondary schools in Kwara, Osun and other states over the wearing of common Hijab by Muslim pupils in schools founded by Christian missions. The Christians forgot that the Hijab has been part of the early Christians dressing code and still practiced in the Vatican and other Christian communities.
In some states, clashes easily erupt between Muslim and Christians over the building of places of worship in schools or in communities while in communities dominated by members of one faith, the other faith is denied freedom of worship most especially in places like Plateau and Benue States where the brand of Christianity practiced differs from the original Christianity globally recognized.
In more hostile communities, adherents of faith other than the one with the majority are chased out or instantly killed as witnessed in Plateau State where innocent Muslims are murdered by natives for possessing lands legally, while the murderers continue to claim being Christians in Berom and other native enclaves.
But fortunately enough, instead of reprisal, Christians are accommodated in Muslim dominated areas without threats, frustration or denial of any right as a pointer.
Let’s shudder to think of the rationale behind the use of religion and its consequences in politics. In the 2015 elections, APC won the gubernatorial election in Plateau State but its presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari got defeated in same election for his religious faith which had no negative effect on his journey to the presidency.
This was repeated in 2023. Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC was defeated in an APC controlled state for the Muslim/Muslim ticket reason despite the high position occupied by the exiting governor, Simon Lalong in the Tinubu Campaign Organization. In place, Peter Gregory Obi, a Christian from the relatively weak Labor Party carried majority of the votes in Plateau State not even the PDP presidential candidate in a claimed PDP controlled state that gave Nigeria the first national chairman of the party in 1998, Chief Solomon Lar.
The gubernatorial candidate of PDP won the election against that of the APC who was labeled an apologist of Muslims by his fellow Christians for a nurtured baseless hate against Islam that has no impact on national politics.
From the stated above, one doubts much if Plateau or any other state that nurses such a grudge against other faiths can ever achieve its potential in progress or develop appreciably no matter what. And who is that foolish Muslim ready to waste a vote to favor any ethno-religious bigot at the national level from Plateau or any of such states?
Luckily enough, Plateau politics begins and ends in Plateau State. I doubt much if any indigene of Plateau State can ever dream of being a president in Nigeria in any political dispensation or be trusted with any other responsible position other than the mandatory ministerial position. Nigerians, most especially those from the far north, have lost confidence in anything Plateau State. Bulk of winning votes for the presidency, are usually from the far northern states from the records.
There is no denying the fact also that the Hijab and the turban have in recent times aided the activities of insurgents and bandits in the northern parts of the country because with them, they are able to hide their identities and conceal their bombs until they do the intended damage. But God help any administration that contemplates a ban on these abused religious dresses in insecurity prone areas.
Many Christian religious leaders were up in arms against APC’s same-faith ticket not because of their love for Jesus Christ or Christianity but because of the success of the experiment would pose a direct challenge to the influence they wield on their followers, many of whom have turned worship places into cash cows and extortion centres. Not necessarily because they are searching for salvation but because they are desperately looking for immediate solutions to personal problems that may be solved by any government in their personal favor from other climes.
The story is told of a Nigerian pastor who was invited as a guest preacher in a South African Church in Pretoria. The pastor, an apostle of prosperity gospel, proudly mounted the pulpit and after preaching for about 45 minutes made an altar call for members of the congregation who wanted American visas. He expected the congregation to pour forth like they do in his own Church in Nigeria. But to his greatest shock, not a single member of the congregation responded positively. Lost on the Nigerian pastor is that most of the problems that drive Nigerians to seek visas even to the Republics of Niger, Tchad, Benin or Cameroun are taken care of by the South African Government.
Hence the barbers, the tailors, the welders, the hairdressers and other artisans are thriving with their vocations in South Africa while their Nigerian counterparts are left to resort to riding commercial motorcycles (Okada) as a means of survival because they are frustrated beyond comprehension with the absence of steady electricity supply and other basic necessities.
The rest, ravaged by hunger and unable to raise money to acquire motorcycles, are left to choose between subscribing to crime, searching for miracle to make ends meet through ritual killings etc. Those who opt for the latter turn their pastors into gods whose directives determine their direction. They thus strip their toga of men of God for the garb of gods of the foolish, ignorant, greedy and idiotic men. With their followers tied irretrievably to their apron strings, they begin to dictate how they (followers) must live their lives and not from the dictates of the Holy Bible.
The foregoing is the logic behind the current grandstanding of many Church leaders insisting that their followers must vote in particular directions and with some even going as far as saying that the party or candidates they vote for in the elections will determine their destinations in the hereafter. If that is to be believed, why was Pastor Tunde Bakare or Yemi Osinbajo rejected by APC Christian delegates at the National Convention for Bola Ahmed Tinubu a Muslim?
Agreed, the APC so desperate to have the best from its rating frustrated the Northern minority Christians against carrying the vice presidential ticket as a 2023 winning strategy, but the party should be blamed for failing to table the strategy before the northern minority Christians for thorough deliberation, understanding and convenience. That was not done. Therefore, Minority Northern Christians might have been right with their protest and attempts to ridicule the chances of their party in the concluded presidential election to express their frustration and a point, but they should be reminded of their limitation that should not go against national unity. Nigeria belongs to all of us irrespective of faith.
On the other hand, the strongest opposition PDP was watching how the minority Northern Christians occupied themselves with a task that was to the advantage of them or the Labor Party that had a comedian Christian as its presidential candidate who already won the ‘presidential’ election on sponsored social media platforms managed by lapdogs before the election.
Whichever way the pendulum swung, the elections are over and winners declared and inaugurated. We are now in the campaign era for national unity, cohesion and security to our existence.
The issue of religion resurfaced with APC so desperate to impose a Christian President of Senate to balance the equation.
But what were Akpabio’s contributions to the victory of the Muslim/Muslim ticket in 2023 or was he just imposed on the senate because he is a Christian from the South-south of the divide?
If that was the case, are there no better Christians from the South-south in the senate for the exalted position than what APC chose to impose that is now creating problems for smooth legislation and executive/legislature cordiality? Appointment of Senate Principal Officers with some incapacitated and suffering from integrity rating and the 2024 Budget Padding in my mind! Best of luck to the best for Nigeria!
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues.
