BY KEN UGBECHIE

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has made its choice. It’s now a finality. A Muslim-Muslim ticket for the 2023 Presidential election. Many notable and the not-so-notable Nigerians have kicked against it. Even members of the APC have denounced the ticket. It’s hard to justify the decision even for die-hard supporters of the party. Each time they pop up on television to defend it, they stutter; they slur. For otherwise eloquent and usually persuasive speakers, you’d guess with certitude that they bear a huge moral burden trying to find a connection between a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket in Nigeria in 2022 and decency, even morality. No nexus, absolutely.

Here, you can appreciate the angst of those who have raised their voices against such insensitive political contraption in a plural society and at a time the nation has become torn in bits along flawed lines of ethnicity and religion.

Just last week, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and his running mate, Ifeanyi Okowa, at the risk of being accused of repeating themselves, frontally condemned the ticket, describing it as the ‘most insensitive decision in a diversified nation.”

Okowa was particularly livid with the arrangement because, according to him, it negates every sense of morality, equity, and decency. He said: “I personally do not believe in the Muslim-Muslim ticket… sticking to one faith is not a good thing to do particularly in a troubled nation as we are in today. It’s almost like going on to having the presidential candidate from the North and picking the vice-presidential candidate also from the North.”

Atiku and Okowa are not alone. Since the APC conjured the Muslim-Muslim ticket, rumpus and rage have trailed it. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the highest body of the Christian faith in Nigeria has rejected it. Politicians, including members of the APC, have condemned it. Every ear that hears spits on the ground, an involuntary response to the abominable.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the APC Presidential candidate did not help matters. In his frantic effort to douse the hailstorm of rejection that trailed the decision, he said: “If we truly understood the challenges upon us as a country, we must also see the imperative of placing competence in governance above religious sentiments.” Even by his own admission, Tinubu implies that there are no competent Christians in the north. Such riposte to a dark, thick cloud of criticisms that trailed his decision, rather than clear the darkling veil of abnegation, thickened it the more and worst of it all, enraged more Nigerians. His own party men from both south and north scoffed at the decision, and much more at his response.

Babachir Lawal, a northern Christian, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and a chieftain of the APC described it as “dead on arrival.” His sentiments resonated with many other northern Christians who deprecated, in very strong terms, the decision to throw up such same-faith ticket. Yakubu Dogara, former Speaker, House of Representatives, himself another northern Christian chieftain of the APC, literally spat on the ground to show his disdain for the ticket.

For emphasis, Lawal was a prominent member of the Tinubu Campaign team (pre-primaries) and has never held back his love and respect for Jagaban Borgu. He has at every turn garbed Tinubu in comely robes, describing him as “a very good man, a great listener with a very humble and friendly disposition to every one; very generous in both cash and kind, especially where it could advance his political interests.” Lawal no doubt has high regards for Tinubu. But he believes, like many Nigerians, that the Muslim-Muslim ticket is a disastrous recipe for failure and a potent shear to further carve up an already divided nation into several bits of bitter units fueled by religion.

Lawal sees the Muslim-Muslim ticket as a calamity that has befallen his friend, Tinubu. And the choice of Kashim Shettima as the height of such disaster. He describes Shettima as an overambitious man with a Machiavellian bent. Lawal’s thesis is that Shettima is a Greek gift from the Northern governors to Tinubu, implying in his open letter to Tinubu that Shettima will turn round to undo him.

Lawal believes that the choice of a Muslim-Muslim ticket was the instrument the gods prepared to bring down APC. He captures it thus: “Those whom the gods want to destroy they first make mad. It appears that the gods want to destroy the APC and its Presidential Candidate and have chosen the instrumentality of the northern Muslim governors and their super ambitious tool and Kashim Shettima for this purpose.”

Nigeria has always been on the cliff of religion and ethnicity. Though nuanced in the past, the present reality is sour and surly. Those who excavate the Abiola-Kingibe Muslim-Muslim ticket of 1993 from the dunghill of history are merely playing the possum. That happened in the past when there was a ‘desperation’ among the people to see off the military and at a time the nation was not overly divided along the notorious fault lines of religion and ethnicity. Under President Buhari, Nigeria has cracked up viciously along those hegemonic flaws.

APC as it’s currently contrived for 2023 election has the following colouration: Muslim Presidential Candidate, Muslim Vice Presidential Candidate, Muslim National Chairman, Muslim Deputy National Chairman, all working to succeed a Muslim President Buhari; Muslim Senate President (Lawan); Muslim Speaker (Gbajabiamila); Muslim Deputy Speaker (Wase), among other such national positions and appointments.

Many have grumbled and murmured over this skewed configuration. This makes the need for national cohesion both compelling and imperative. Nigeria is a plural community. Isolating one group and treating them with disdain and contempt is both demeaning and devious. It does not address the urgency to effectively husband our peculiar and beautiful diversity.

Someday, Nigeria will get to the point where nobody will bother about religion or ethnicity of office holders. We are not yet there. These socio-cultural themes still define our choices and actions. If religion does not matter, why would the APC resort to the criminal enterprise of hiring ‘Bishops’ to put up appearance at the formal presentation of the Tinubu-Shettima ticket. Such criminality bordering on impersonation could easily have been avoided.

Given the backlash that greeted the immoral and obscene Muslim-Muslim ticket option and the difficulty in marketing it to Nigerians, it does appear that some persons within the APC have conspired to work against the party and tear down Tinubu’s influence on the party.

I concur with Okowa and other eminent Nigerians and organisations that sticking to one faith at the Presidential level is not a good thing to do especially at these times when the nation is brutally balkanized along the patterns of faith and ethnicity. Tinubu must be wondering how he fell for this bait that has become both an albatross and political anathema.

But it’s a choice he and his party have made. The choice is with the electorate to make. But if the mood out there serves as barometer in any way, this venture as predicted by Lawal seems dead on arrival.

First published in Sunday Sun