By Ken Eneduwa
Nigeria’s unity is hinged on the shoulders of the Nigerian people. The Nigerian people are religious. When government fails, the Nigerian people embrace God in sincerity or otherwise. And it is safe to say that a people who have embraced religion this long deserve to be duly represented in an election.
In 2023, Nigeria will choose a new president. This seemingly simple exercise will determine the direction of the country whose population is on the increase daily.
If Nigerians do not get it right, many young Nigerians would leave the country and pitch their tent elsewhere, serving and growing the economy of other nations of the world but that won’t be all there is.
They would have lost physical touch with home. If things get right and the huge human capital is explored, and local industries are set up, and accountable professionals are put in charge of functional offices, maybe things will become a bit better and the citizens will be respected anywhere in the world.
Nigeria is made up of countless ethnic groups scattered around the geopolitical zones.
In the north, outside the obvious Hausa and Fulani, there are smaller groups like the Kanuri that are almost swallowed up. But one thing that divides the country severely is religion.
While Christians make up the bulk of the population in the southern part of the country, Muslims are dominant in the north. But of course, there are churches in the north and mosques in the south.
These two dominant religions in the country suffocate the smaller faiths, most especially the African traditional faith and the religiously indifferent.
While the representation of the two faiths have not been satisfactorily serving at all quarters, this year, to secure votes and appeal more to the northern power, the All Progressive Congress, approved the Muslim-Muslim ticket for the Presidential flag bearer of the party and for the vice-presidential flag bearer.
While this tactic is to win elections because it seems that there is no northern Christian who can sway votes in favour of the APC, the former Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, was chosen to run with Bola Ahmed Tinubu from the West.
Nigeria’s division has happened along tribal and religious lines on multiple occasions.
Jos, Kano and Kaduna have been heated points. And nothing could signify the downplaying of the other faith in the country like the lack of cohesiveness that this type of politics has caused.
Luckily, people like Babachir and Dogara, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, have condemned the sidelining of the Christian faith. And what makes it worse is the character of the men who are running for offices under the APC.
While President Buhari ran for office with certificates issues and some of his comments about sections of the country reiterated his narrow-mindedness, Tinubu has been the subject of several articles questioning his age which are conflicting and his source of wealth.
There are leaked papers online that have suggested that Bola Tinubu might have had a history of drug trade in the US. And his vice, Shettima, was indicted in the kidnap of the Chibok school girls whose bad press gave Goodluck Jonathan a bad knock that led to his eventual loss of the elections.
Shettima had rewarded the principal of the affected school in Chibok with a portfolio as commissioner in his cabinet, a move that signalled settlement for a job well done in endangering the lives of the pupils at Chibok.
The APC, through its insensitive tactics, has ignored the teeming population of the taxpaying Christians in Nigeria and by their efforts have decided to declare that they are insignificant in a system that they have contributed and built over the years.
Nigerian Christians have run businesses and institutions that have brought glory to the country. Covenant University, a privately owned Christian university has been ranked top of institutions in Africa and the world at large.
The blatant refusal to not have Christians represented in a ticket in Nigeria has showed what the Tinubu/Shettima duo intend to misrepresent the people. It means that the cause of the good people of Nigeria would be taken as unrepresented and the Christians would not have a voice in the proposed political system of Tinubu and Shettima.
It is an unfortunate disregard for anyone who has followed Nigeria’s progress since independence to refuse to call the APC to order and vote against the party and its unhealthy tactic in the forthcoming election.
The world thrives on representation. No matter how you are loved, there is no better goodness and feeling of inclusiveness like the due representation that is backed by law.
Nigerian Christians deserve more. And if the Muslim world wishes to progress and become all-embracing in Nigeria, all institutions of the faith should preach the unification of Nigeria through a representation that identifies and pushes for the interest of everyone in this country, irrespective of faith.
Nigeria deserves accountability. Whoever would lead Nigeria needs to come clean. If we have to redeem the image of Nigeria in the global West and become like neighbouring African countries that have made progress in development and infrastructural status, the people who make it to the leadership must be people who are not of questionable character but serious, dedicated, and transparent individuals who are also mentally and physically healthy and armed with the necessary 21st-century tools of negotiation and engagements.
Nigeria deserves more than what the APC is offering and if we are serious about the future of Nigeria, the APC should lose grandly at the forthcoming election as a price for their foolishness and wickedness to the Nigerian people, especially for giving the nation is worst setback since the modern-day Nigeria.
President Buhari, who spent millions of taxpayers’ money to medically vacation in the UK spat on the faces of the Nigerian Medical Association and the bright and sophisticated young medical personnel who are conquering the world, bringing glory to Nigeria, yet they cannot be employed or even paid enough to treat their own president.
Ken Eneduwa writes from Toronto, Canada.
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