The column, ‘Between Ndigbo Awalokan and Yoruba Emilokan’ by Olusegun Adeniyi was quite insightful as usual. Unfortunately, there is no line within the reach of the Nigerian political elites that they have not already crossed. This has been evident since 1993 when members of the resurgent Pentecostal led the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to oppose Moshood Abiola’s same-faith ticket. That was how religion became another factor in the calculations of politicians across the country.
The entry of Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) into politics in 2003 gradually drew Muslim leaders into national politics, as they were hitherto more interested in consolidating Sharia in their home states. This support reached a crescendo in 2015 when he eventually won the presidential election. They were less involved in 2019 when Buhari was already in office, but they picked up the gauntlet in 2023 when CAN orchestrated a vigorous campaign against the choice of a Muslim running mate by the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Personally, I haven’t seen how the religious affiliation of any Nigerian leader has helped the generality of his co-religionists and denied others. Any benefits are personal to individuals on account of their closeness to the leader. Muslims still go to Hajj as usual and Christian pilgrimage has become an established event. The dictum of Shehu Usman Dan Fodio to the effect that “a community can endure with unbelief but cannot endure with injustice” should be guide enough to leaders of whatever faith.
One thing I have noticed is that people do forget that zoning and rotation are convenient arrangements politicians brought into being to share power “on behalf of their people.” Each party has its own “zoning cycle”. I have always believed that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), going by its past, should zone its presidential candidate to the North after Goodluck Jonathan’s turn as president on the platform of the party. By the same logic, the ruling APC was duty bound to present a presidential candidate from the South after Buhari. Even though the party almost didn’t, but for the doggedness of Tinubu, the winner of its primaries – and the presidential election.
Meanwhile, ethnic profiling has been with us for a long time. But its current strength is a great worry, especially with propagation by social media. Leading political figures have a duty not to see profiling as a vote-winning strategy and must do all within their powers to tamper the enthusiasm of their supporters in their ready recourse to it.
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MT Usman, former Director, National Universities Commission (NUC), Kaduna.
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