BY BRIGHT JACOB
Efforts at breaking the ice over the All Progressives Congress Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket saga continued last week Thursday in Abuja with the party’s standard-bearer in the 2023 presidential election, Asiwaju Bola AhmedTinubu, meeting with some Northern Christian leaders under the aegis of Pentecostal Bishops Forum of Northern Nigeria.
And, as expected, reactions have continued to trail the meeting.
After Tinubu, a Muslim from the South West emerged as the presidential candidate of the APC in June, a debate was ignited over the religious affiliation of his would-be running mate, with many pundits warning that a Muslim running mate, or by extension, a Muslim-Muslim ticket, would spell doom for his party on Election Day.
When Tinubu eventually nominated the former Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, a northern Muslim, as his number two man, political “daggers” were drawn against him by those who were frustrated with the “Lion of Bourdillon” for making what they felt was a political miscalculation.
The roll call of those who vehemently opposed the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC includes the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, both northern Christians from the ruling party, who asked Nigerian Christians not to vote for Tinubu.
Tinubu’s networking with the northern Bishops, therefore, has been widely viewed by some political observers as a step in the right direction. Though others insist it is “too little” to make any favourable impact on his presidential ambition, considering the Muslim-Muslim ticket rift.
One such person is a socio-political activist and staunch APC critic, Reno Omokri, who commended Tinubu for meeting with the northern bishops.
However, Omokri said it was “too little,” as the APC should address their “imbalanced” ticket in a holistic manner. The former aide to President Goodluck Jonathan also said that the executive, legislature and judiciary were headed by Buhari, Lawal and Ariwoola, respectively, all Muslims. According to Omokri, Nigeria had become too divided for a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
The Christian Association of Nigeria has also been a vociferous opponent of the Muslim-Muslim ticket. From the outset, they warned Tinubu against such a political maneuver, pointing out that they would reject the arrangement. Thus, it didn’t come as a surprise when the body disowned some ‘clerics’ who were present during the unveiling of Shettima in Abuja as the vice presidential candidate of the APC, calling them “fake bishops.”
It was, perhaps, in the spirit of forging a level of trust back to the battered relationship between the Christian community in Nigeria and the APC that Tinubu told John Praise, the presiding Bishop of Dominion Chapel International Church, and leader of the northern Christian delegation, that the solution to the nation’s many woes should be “what was taken to the office, and not religion.”
Tinubu also disclosed to the Bishops that when the shortlisted names for the position of the vice president were brought to him, Shettima met all the required criteria, and besides that, Shettima had protected Christians during the (Boko Haram) crisis when he was Governor. Tinubu also reminded the bishops that he was first among equals and a friend of the Christian community.
He said, “How will Nigeria develop? How do we banish hunger, improve security and eliminate killings of one another? That is what we must take to the office, not our religion.
When the shortlisted names came, I looked at their characters, their background and everything.
“Yes, somebody so brilliant, so committed, who had, during the crisis in Borno, protected Christians. My intention is clear, (it is) not for religiosity.”
Speaking further, he said, “My intention is to develop this country, to bring prosperity. I have better qualifications, a better track record and better vision than any of my mates.
“Why do we want to stay divided? I am standing before you (and telling you that) I am one of the best friends of the Christian community in this country. Let us develop intellectual inquisitiveness.”
Reacting to the visit by the northern Bishops, the Osun State Chairman of CAN, Amos Ogunrinde, told The Point that politicians were free to take their campaigns anywhere they wanted. While answering a question about whether the APC candidate met with the right set of Christian leaders who could change his political fortunes, Ogunrinde said that even if politicians could go anywhere, they ought to realise that there was a leadership structure among Christians.
Ogunrinde said that if anyone wanted to “meet with the Christian community at the apex,” the leadership structure of CAN at the national level in Abuja, would call stakeholders for a meeting. He also said that Tinubu was probably doing “grassroots work” through his meeting with the northern Bishops.
He stated that “This is politics, and in politics, politicians are free to take their campaign wherever they want…It is their campaign. They can go anywhere they want. However, everyone is aware that in Nigeria, Christians have leadership. We have national, zonal, state and ward (levels) because the Christian community has a structure.
“If he (Tinubu) wants to see the Christian community at the apex, he should go to (the) national (headquarter), and our new president (of CAN) will call the stakeholders who would meet him.
“But I think he is still going around gradually…maybe he is doing grassroots work. Maybe some people are taking him around to those he should see. But I am sure that he knows the right people to see, and when he gets to see the Christians at the national level, then that’s when we’ll tell him what is on our minds,” Ogunrinde declared.
About Tinubu telling the northern clerics that his decision for the Muslim-Muslim ticket was because of good governance and not to spite Christians, Ogunrinde said that people were entitled to their opinions, and he had his, as well. He also wondered why pairing with a Christian would not achieve the same result or, in his words, “give Nigerians good governance.”
“I still believe that either Muslim-Muslim or Christian-Christian or Christian-Muslim or Muslim-Christian…all we want for Nigeria is the best. But no one should say that it’s (only) a Muslim-Muslim pairing that will give Nigerians good governance.
“How about if he had taken a Christian? Does it mean we can’t have good governance with Christians? I think that…well, that is Tinubu’s view. I have mine, also,” he submitted.
Also asked to share his view on whether Tinubu’s action was a pointer to the fact that he was probably desperate and feared for the Muslim-Muslim ticket, Ogunrinde said that would be hard to decipher because, according to him, there are Christians who support the Muslim-Muslim ticket and those who are opposed to it.
He also said that though there were individual Christian leaders who had been speaking about the issue, the Christian community as a body hadn’t spoken with one voice. Ogunrinde attributed this to the fact that Tinubu or any other political party hadn’t “come to us to let us know what they are doing.” He, however, argued that “at the appropriate time, people would know where the Christian community in Nigeria was going.”
A Port Harcourt based Economic/Political analyst, Umar Ndagi, told our correspondent that Tinubu’s stance about the Muslim-Muslim ticket was purely a political move and all about votes.
Ndagi said that the “political arithmetic” which wouldn’t favour Tinubu, a southern minority, and a northern Christian minority, had compelled the APC to settle for the Muslim-Muslim ticket.
“The truth is that it was a purely political decision. It’s all about votes. They would have done their arithmetic and seen that the only way they could convince the majority of voters in the north to come onboard were by fielding a northern Muslim.
“It’s not all about good governance or competence or anything else. To be very honest with you, it is purely political because, Tinubu as a Southerner, is already a minority, and if he comes to the north and picks a northern Christian, that amounts to two minorities on the same ticket. He had no option but to balance it with a Muslim,” Ndagi said.
Whether the Pentecostal Bishops Forum of Northern Nigeria were the right set of Christian leaders Tinubu should be talking to, Ndagi said, “Yes, because they have massive followership.
Continuing, Ndagi said, “If Tinubu can convince them (Bishops) about the choice of Shettima and allay their fears that their faith will not in any way be jeopardized should he be elected, they will go and talk to their members and say we have been convinced by this man and we think he means well. So, you all can go ahead and vote for him.”
Ndagi also said that it was not necessarily fear or desperation that compelled Tinubu to receive the Bishops. In his assessment, politicians would always “do everything humanly possible to win an election, as nobody contested an election to lose.”
On the commentaries about the northern Bishops not being well known, especially in the Southern part of Nigeria, Ndagi said, “The bottom line is that it is better he meets them whether they are well known or not. Let it be seen that he is doing something to placate the Christian community than to say that he is going about in a manner that suggests that he rebuffs them and will not talk to them. That will look arrogant.
“So, whether they are popular or not, we are talking about their meeting today,” he added.
