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Nigerians are out again for an election. A sort of ritual that is carried out at the turn of every four years to elect other sets of leaders. Instead of electing leaders who will better our lot, elections in Nigerian are tantamount to renewal of covenant with poverty, with injustice, with grinding hardship, with joblessness and hopelessness—courtesy of malevolent rulers. I hope this year will be different. Though it is impossible to think of any difference considering the fact that voting any of the top candidates—those with brighter chance of winning—is said to be voting for a lesser evil. So, if we cannot think of any difference, can we just hope for it? I should be right to think there is no sin in hoping. There could be sin in despairing. Let’s keep hoping to avoid sinning.
This said, this coming Saturday’s election is believed, in some circles, to be a decisive one to determine which religion is “supreme” and thus triumph. Supremacy of religion? In sight of God or in Nigeria? This bifurcation of supremacy—in relation to God or in relation to Nigeria—is important to understand what is meant by supremacy of religion. It is at the same time useless vis-a-vis the upcoming election. To establish, by evidence, the supremacy of religion in the sight of God does not require Nigerian 2023 Presidential Election nor its outcome. What is required to justify the supremacy of any religion (Islam or Christianity) is to juxtapose the logic and the illogic (if any) found in their respective scriptures that were celestially revealed. This has nothing to do with the electorate; it has, rather, everything to do with theologians. This, of course, is not intended in this article.
The focus of this article is on how Christianity or Islam becomes supreme in Nigeria by dint of the outcome of Saturday’s election. The Muslim-Muslim ticket of APC is the trigger of this idle thought and senseless expectation. I consider it an unnecessary rant and tantrum by some idle Christians which bigotry has seriously beclouded and, thus, damaged their sense of critical thinking. Hence, they feign ignorance of the extant constitution in the country. Muslim-Muslim or Christian-Christian ticket is a non-issue in Nigeria’s Constitution. I also don’t know of any major political party in Nigeria that problematizes it.
I was reluctant to write on this problematization of Muslim-Muslim ticket by some Nigerian Christian clerics as I don’t want to be seen, being a Muslim, as if attacking Christians unnecessarily. I don’t do this. But, now, I can freely discuss it since some Muslim clerics have started expressing bigotry in similar fashion. They argue—in a display of shallow scholarship—that voting Muslim-Muslim ticket is voting for Islam. And voting otherwise is voting against Islam. I asked: “Which Islam?” The one contrived by them or the Islam endorsed by God? I would have seriously campaigned for Muslim-Muslim ticket—despite all the hullabaloo—if I am convinced of BAT’s candidacy. And that will not make me more Muslim than I am. Just as campaigning against it does not, in anyway, subtract from my Muslimness.
I don’t know why people, through religion, create problems they cannot solve. They will end up being caught up in a web of disgrace and shamelessness from which extrication becomes a problem. If BAT is defeated, how is Islam—or Nigerian Muslims for that matter—defeated or humiliated? Similarly, if Obi is defeated, why should any Christians—or Christianity for that matter—feel defeated or humiliated? What is very certain is that a religion—so called—will be defeated on Saturday if the election holds and counts. Certainly not the Islam I profess and practice. It can also not be the Christianity that a Christian—properly called—practices.
What if PDP—a party we all deserted like a plague—rears its ugly head again? Put differently, what if Atiku wins? He seems not to be riding on any of the religious narrow-minded motorcades. And the augury, if recent events in Nigeria are anything to go by—seems to be in his favor. Would Atiku’s victory, then, be a defeat and humiliation to Islam and Christianity in Nigeria? Commonsense! Bigotry—in whatever form—is very dangerous and humiliating. It ditches commonsense into an abyss full of darkness and illuminates nonsense and even projects it as a virtue.
The Christians—the so-called among them—do have their thoughtless arguments which reek of bigotry against Muslim candidacy. So are the Muslims. I will cite one I recently heard from a Muslim cleric in his public lecture addressing, perhaps, some gullible audience. He said the former President Obasanjo declared his support for Obi’s candidacy due to his incurable hatred for Islam and the Muslims. Therefore, Muslims must vote Muslim-Muslim ticket. Haba! This is unfair!
Let’s assume Obasanjo hates Islam and the Muslims as alleged, how does his support for Obi justify a hatred for Islam? This is how some indecorous clerics, both Muslim and Christian, spew out hatred against politicians in the name of religion. Didn’t Christian clerics in Nigeria equate Buhari’s presidency with Sharia? Now after eight years, where is the Sharia? Rather, they hail the “Sharia president” for granting presidential pardon to two ex-governors (both Christians) who were sentenced to jail by the Supreme Court of the land for fantastic embezzlement of public funds.
When Obasanjo imposed late President Yar’adua (a Muslim) on Nigeria, which kind of religious bigotry did he display then? Though Yar’adua turned out to be a good president (may God have mercy on him). When the Chief Letter Writer wrote his long, damaging, and acerbic letter to help bring down former President Jonathan (his brother in faith), which religious hatred did he express then? His support for Buhari’s Presidency (a Muslim) in 2015 is well known. Then, he was not a religious fanatic.
It is not that there were no Christian candidates to support in 2019, he (Obasanjo) declared his support for Atiku (a Muslim). In fact, during the 2019 election campaign, he whitewashed Atiku whom he had disowned and tarred black in the past and repainted him like our “repainted” naira to be saleable. Then, and for this long, he was not seen as working against Islam. But because he supports Obi this time around, he becomes enemy of Islam. Where is justice in this?
Why can’t we, for once, address issues dispassionately? Why can’t we address issues of corruption and injustice (committed by both Christian and Muslim rulers) which have held us back in the doldrums for this long? Why can’t we hold these rulers accountable instead of ranting about their religions and identities? What have we benefitted from politics of identity? What have states like Katsina, Zamfara, Niger etc. benefitted from Muslim-Muslim tickets? Aren’t governors in these states—with worst records of insecurity and near absence of government—and their deputies Muslims? Are states like Ebonyi, Abia, Anambra, etc. not being ruled by Christian-Christian ticket? What is the progress made so far? It is the same story: killing, kidnapping, and arson by unknown gunmen.
As we are about to elect new leaders across states of the Federation and the Federation itself, let’s vote for competency. Let’s vote for those we can ask questions. Let’s treat them like our servants which they, truly, are. This will be possible when we stop seeing these leaders through the prism of religion and ethnicity. Let’s eschew violence as we set to vote. These contestants are not gods to fight for.
In conclusion, there is something interesting about tomorrow’s presidential election: if Obi wins, that will be despite his structurelessness; if Atiku wins, that will be despite the G5 governors; if BAT wins, that will be despite the shenanigans of his party (APC) against him. But if Nigerians win, which is our earnest desire, there is going to be justice, hope, development, and progress all over Nigeria. May Nigerians win. Vote wisely!
Abdulkadir Salaudeen
salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com
