2027: Using Religion For Common Good

Something strange and something commendable is happening in the political scene, with what was highly condemnable at the federal level in 2023 and in Kaduna State in 2019 being relegated to the background. In Kaduna State, under the administration of Mallam Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai, the 2023 governorship election nearly turned combustible after the governor introduced a Muslim-Muslim ticket to spite the Christian population. The same-faith ticket, according to El-Rufai in a meeting with selected clerics, including the leader of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), Prof. Ishaq Akintola, was introduced to demonstrate the numerical strength of Muslims and enthrone the justice system of Islam. He told his audience that if the same-faith ticket is maintained for over 20 years at both the federal and Kaduna State levels, then the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and ethnic bigots would have no option but to fold in line.

Things Change Fast

Less than four years after El-Rufai’s secret declaration, which was leaked a few hours later, his prediction has been completely overturned and discarded. Beyond falling out with his successor, Senator Uba Sani, the former Kaduna state governor is in court, fighting to secure bail amid sundry corruption allegations. His dream of a same-faith ticket for the state he ruled for eight years has been jettisoned. In what many see as an effort to close gaps created by exclusion and embrace all sections across ethnic and religious divides, Governor Sani has nominated the former Chairman of the Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service (KDIRS), Comrade Jerry Adam, as his running mate in next year’s governorship poll.  For those who think Nigerians would continue to bow to the shenanigans of politicians using religion for relevance, their descent into the valley of irrelevance has commenced.

If the same-faith ticket aimed to create disunity among Christians and Muslims, the performance of both President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Governor Sani has clearly contradicted El-Rufai’s expectations in Kaduna State. Instead, Kaduna State Christians have found direction and inclusion in an administration that has opened up the state’s southern part, which the former governor neglected. Sen Sani is now celebrated as a champion of inclusion, committed to the collective growth of all parts of Kaduna State.

Unity Of Purpose

The Sani-led administration’s footprint resonated at a maiden meeting attended by Southern and Northern Kaduna State Christian leaders in Ikara Local Government Area. The meeting, organised by the Tinubu-Uba Support Organisation (TUSO) and led by Dr Manzo Maigari, who is the executive chairman of the Kachia Local Government Area, brought together Christian leaders from the nine local government areas, including Giwa, in the northern part of Kaduna State to assess the administrations of both President Tinubu and Sen Sani.

Giving reasons for their decision to back the re-election of President Tinubu and Governor Sani, participants at the Ikara meeting declared: “Considering the performance profiles of both His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR) and His Excellency, the Executive Governor of  Kaduna State, Senator (Dr.) Uba Sani, and the nomination of a Christian Deputy Governorship candidate by the Governor, including the establishment of the Federal University of Applied Sciences (FUAS) Kachia; Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Kafanchan,  stakeholders at the meeting declared their support for the re-election of the President and the Governor to enable them to consolidate and sustain what they have started at both the federal and state levels in the interest of Christians who were relegated by the immediate past administration led by Mallam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai.”

Today Not Yesterday

Ahead of the 2023 presidential poll, the Christian population largely resolved not to support the same-faith ticket. The appearance of a Christian presidential candidate in churches gave credence to unconfirmed rumours that the CAN had endorsed Obi for the presidency. However, many did not know that the then APC presidential candidate, Tinubu, was also working with some Christian leaders, largely behind the scenes.

Less than two years after his inauguration, Tinubu’s performance left no doubt that his administration was built on inclusion, not exclusion. Though allegations suggested he was ethnicising appointments to top government posts, the former Lagos State governor, who declared ‘Emi lokan’ (it’s my time), ignored his critics. A survey published in a national daily revealed that there were more Christians than Muslims in his cabinet. He refused to capitulate to mounting pressure to turn his administration into a same-faith ticket in terms of swinging the pendulum of appointments in favour of Muslims.

With the 2027 polls that are three months away, the veil has fallen from the eyes of many Christians.  The lie behind deploying religion to campaign for political power has been exposed, with the understanding that a same-faith presidency can still achieve more for people, using that as a political strategy for electoral victory. It is clear as day that the Tinubu presidency has done more for Christians than Muhammadu Buhari, who had Prof. Yemi Osinbajo as deputy. The rejection of the MM ticket in Kaduna State has become a healing balm against the cancer of exclusion introduced to widen the gulf of human brotherhood and enthrone hatred and constant bloodshed in a state that was once the headquarters of kidnappings in Nigeria.

Nigerians may not be where they want to be now, but the country has moved away from a situation Shakespeare describes as: “All cheerless, dark and deadly.” Against expectations of same-faith ticket advocates, the North, once the victim of religious manipulation, now understands the dialectics behind the evil motives of leaders who continue to rise on religious sentiments for political reasons. The Ikara meeting clearly signals that religious unity in purpose can strengthen Nigerians’ resolve to stand up for the common good. Yesterday is gone, along with the misconceptions that come with using religion for politics; today, a new dawn welcomes religious unity in standing up for humanity.