The All Progressives Congress is about to conduct a major electoral experiment with the presidential election in 2023 as its candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, picked a fellow Muslim and former Borno State Governor, Senator Kashim Shettima as his running mate.
For the APC, the Muslim-Muslim ticket has now become a reality and the political analysts are divided over the mono-religious presidency that the party is trying to sell to the electorate.
While a school of thought has argued that religion – and ethnicity – should be downplayed in the selection of leaders, especially at a time when Nigeria is in a dire need of efficient leadership and good governance, believing that competence and capacity are the qualities that matter most, another school believes otherwise. There is a counter-argument that it is a multi-religious and multi-ethnic nation and these divisions should be reflected in the configuration of the country’s leadership to make the others have a sense of belonging.
Some political analysts have long ago pointed out that Tinubu, from the South, might be forced to pick a Muslim running mate who must be from the North where Islam is the dominant religion and the Christians are in the minority. To these pundits, a Muslim-Muslim ticket is a necessity for Tinubu, and the APC by extension, to penetrate the North and win in the region. Tinubu has amidst warnings and protests picked Shettima, a Muslim. The vice-presidential candidate is the lawmaker currently representing Borno Central Senatorial District at the Senate – and a Kanuri man from a region where the Fulani and the Hausa are the powerful forces.
30-year-old history
The Tinubu-Shettima’s Muslim-Muslim ticket will be put to the popularity test 30 years after the late Moshood Abiola and Babagana Kingibe, both Muslims, ran for presidency on the platform of the Social Democratic Party. Indeed, the mono-religious ticket won the election held on June 12, 1993, which was widely acclaimed to be the country’s freest and fairest, though it was annulled by the then military regime led by Gen Ibrahim Babangida. Critics of the similar move by the APC are, however, quick to point out that the socio-political, ethnoreligious and economic factors have changed between 1993 and 2023.
It is worthy to note that Nigeria once witnessed a notable Christian-Christian ticket, which had the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the late Chief Philip Umeadi of the Unity Party of Nigeria in 1979. Awolowo was from Ogun State in the present-day South-West geopolitical zone while Umeadi was from the Old Anambra State now in the South-East. There are accounts that Awolowo was forced to pick another southerner when his choices in the North turned him down.
Another point that must be made is that the issue around the ethnoreligious composition of presidential tickets emerges on the front burner almost every election season. When former military dictator, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), a Muslim, emerged as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress in 2014, there were indications that Tinubu, the national leader of the newly formed APC, would be the vice-presidential candidate but for the religious factor.
After his running battles with the powers that be, President of the 8th Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, in 2016 disclosed that he was allegedly persecuted especially over his emergence as Senate president, for opposing and working against the alleged plan by the APC to fly a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the 2015 presidential election. Saraki had made this known in his article which was published on April 23, 2016, in response to that of Chief Dele Momodu in his Pendulum column.
In what appeared to have confirmed Saraki’s allegation, Tinubu, later in 2017, alleged that Saraki and the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, worked against the plan to make him Buhari’s running mate in 2015. Tinubu alleged that Saraki, el-Rufai and other stalwarts of the Peoples Democratic Party, who defected to the APC in the build-up to the 2015 elections, instigated Buhari and some APC chieftains not to pick him as the would-be vice-president, according to a book titled ‘Against the Run of Play,’ written by the Chairman, Editorial Board of ThisDay, Olusegun Adeniyi.
Again, Tinubu, in his now-famous Abeokuta speech recalled how Saraki, el-Rufai and other leaders in the APC prevented his emergence as Buhari’s running mate due to their opposition to a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
Responding, via a statement issued by the Head of his Media Office, Yusuph Olaniyonu, Saraki stated, “When I and other leaders of the All Progressives Congress in 2014 stood against having a Muslim-Muslim ticket, it was not a decision targeted at any individual or group but one taken in the national interest. Asiwaju knows this and he is just being mischievous by presenting this decision as something aimed at stopping his ambition.”
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On Sunday, Tinubu, in his statement officially announcing Shettima as his running mate, justified his choice of another Muslim while appealing to the conscience of critics.
The presidential candidate partly said, “Today, I announce my selection with pride because I have made it not based on religion or to please one community or the other. I made this choice because I believe this is the man who can help me bring the best governance to all Nigerians, period, regardless of their religious affiliation or considerations of ethnicity or region.
“May I say this to all of you, especially to those who will be disappointed in my selection based on religious considerations. I will not and cannot ignore the religious concerns and ethnic sensitivities of our people. Taking them into due consideration is an important part of good and able governance. But religion, ethnicity and region cannot always and fully determine our path. To forge ahead as a nation toward development and prosperity, we must break free of old binds. We must recalibrate our political calculations to where competence and fairness matter more than reductive demographics.
“This is why, today, I announce the selection of Senator Kashim Shettima as my partner and running mate in the mission to advance and reclaim the fortunes of this great country and the hopes of its people.
Tinubu explains choice
“I am aware that many will continue to focus on a particular detail, the question of his faith. However, if we truly understand the challenges upon us as a nation, then we must also see the imperative of placing competence in governance above religious sentiment. In 1993, Nigerians embrace Chief MKO Abiola and a fellow Muslim running mate, Babagana Kingibe in one of our fairest elections ever held. The spirit of 1993 is upon us again in 2023. As such, the ticket we present today represents a milestone in our political history. It symbolises our party’s determination to be a leading light among political parties in Africa.”
Before Tinubu made the announcement, the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, had on Friday hinted that the former Lagos State governor had agreed to pick a Muslim as his running mate. There were reports that northern governors, who were instrumental to Tinubu’s victory at the APC presidential primary, advised him to pick a Muslim on the grounds that the choice will guarantee him victory in 2023.
While he heeded the advice of the governors by picking a Muslim, he did not yield to pressure from them that one of them should be picked for the vice-presidential slot.
Despite the justifications by Tinubu, the choice of another Muslim elicited reactions immediately after Shettima was announced, especially from the Christian Association of Nigeria which is threatening fire and brimstone.
Human rights lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, in a statement titled ‘Muslim-Muslim Ticket Insensitive Choice,’ stated in his reaction, ‘It is a terrible choice in one million ways! Nigerians, whether Muslims, Christians, traditionalists, etc, should reject APC with their votes come 2023. A Muslim-Muslim ticket in present-day Nigeria is fuel for Boko Haram, an incentive for ISWAP and a call for more terrorists, unless, of course, those parading the ticket are themselves complicit. There is no better way to insult our sensibilities. I pray it is not true.”
The Executive Director, Adopt A Goal Initiative, Ariyo-Dare Atoye warned that if Tinubu succeeds with a Muslim-Muslim ticket, the implication is that by the time power returns to the North in 2031, “Nigeria will have no Christian president in 24 years, starting in 2015.”
Also, Convener of the Concerned Nigerians, a civil society organisation, Deji Adeyanju, pointed out that there were more competent Christians in the North that could have been picked.
He asked, “Who is Shettima is more competent than in northern Nigeria that is a Christian? Is Shettima more competent than all the people in the North who are Christians and politicians in the APC? Is he more competent than the SGF (Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha) that was being considered? Is he more competent than the Plateau State governor (Simon Lalong)?”