Kukah And The Vice Presidential Story

According to a news story published by a national newspaper (not LEADERSHIP), Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah was one of the names being tipped to replace vice president Kashim Shettima as running mate to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027. This story fits into the barrage of misinformation devoted to swinging the political pendulum, ahead of next year’s general elections. Any storyteller can come out with a better narration insinuating such a fabrication.

The allegation that all is not well between Tinubu and his deputy gained credence when an appointee of the presidency, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, resigned in April 2025 and said his resignation was principally influenced by the lack of resolve by the Tinubu-led administration to tackle insecurity and poverty. The relationship between insecurity and poverty is intertwined. As long as insecurity festers, so long will the dream of emancipating citizens from the claws of deprivation remain forlorn and unrealisable.

The Drumbeats Begin

With the drumbeats of the general elections becoming louder, those plotting to wrest power from the incumbent are exploring all avenues to defeat Tinubu. Following the US President Donald Trump’s tweet late last year that degenerated into a pro-Christian and pro-Muslim genocide group, the discourse assumed a feverish religious undertone. In the face of a debate that had turned into a conversational warfare, both camps became a tool in widening the religious gulf and portraying the cross and the crescent moon with a star in a combat.

Contrary to the erroneous assumption that Christianity and Islam are at war, the deployment of politics to gain ascendancy has always been an established rule among members of the ruling elite, with democracy practised devoid of the people’s participation. Taking advantage of turning poverty into an effective weapon, ethnicity and religious sentiments are now the albatross of the ballot system of government.

The 2023 general elections proved an eye-opener as they uncovered the underbelly of religious and ethnic sentiments taken too far. Against the old practice where both faiths had informally agreed to some sharing of position in maintaining religious relevance, the APC in 2022 adopted a Muslim-Muslim ticket. While former Governor Nasir Ahmed el-Rufai of Kaduna State revealed that the real reason behind the same faith ticket was to put non-Muslims in their true position as political underdogs, he vowed that by the time the same faith ticket was put into practice for many years, non-Muslims would realise that the same faith ticket is for justice and not injustice.

The Kukah Position

In its third year of being in power, the same faith ticket of Tinubu and Shettima has clearly shown that it can and has worked for both faiths. Comparing the previous administration, led by a pious Muslim, General Muhammadu Buhari, and a pastor of Redeemed Church, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, with the present administration amounts to comparing apples and oranges in delivering equity. The incumbent may not have shown an adequate commitment to resolving the intractable problems of the country, but it has shown an unparalleled devotion to tackling challenges confronting Nigeria.

Kukah is a metaphor for negotiating many curves by Nigeria in its many years of being trapped in the mud. More than any cleric, Kukah has left no one in doubt that he is a committed humanist for both faiths. Sometimes his views may be unfathomable to many, but to some, he remains a roadmap to a prosperous future devoid of disunity.

The unique trait of Bishop Kukah is his interest in finding solutions through intellectual debates to our national woes, without throwing his hat in the ring for a contest. Though not an active political participant, he is a friend to many across the political and religious divide. He still sees the problem in religious colouration but a deeper manipulation of the twin factors of ethnicity mixed in religion.

Identifying Kukah as a potential running mate to Tinubu in 2027 is a reporter’s infertile figment that is devoid of any sense of the cleric’s footprints. The Catholic Bishop has not only chosen the path of serving God, but also, he has chosen the path of intellectualism in providing solutions to the myriad of challenges plaguing his nation of birth.

As a public intellectual for the common good, Bishop Kukah dreams of a country where all can walk through the door and be assessed based on their competence and not religion or ethnicity. Linking Kukah’s intellectualism into a political dream could turn into a strategy to deepen the religious debate over Christian-Muslim sharing power that has left ethnic minorities politically disadvantaged.

Shooting Down Same Faith Ticket

There is no doubt that under a Muslim-Muslim ticket, Christians have been visited with justice and equity. The ministerial rejection of el-Rufai as a ministerial nominee has endorsed the assertion that politicians are always in love with their personal interests. With his dream of being a minister rendered futile, the former governor has become a bull in a China shop in undoing what he helped to bring about in 2023.

Unfortunately, those who were accused by el-Rufai of being religious bigots in supporting Peter Obi in 2023, are yet to re-align themselves to realities. A former governor told me in 2014 that, when politicians resort to religious sentiments, the real intention is to confuse the polity and give a stamp of acceptability to their personal ambition.

Even when the presidency is under the same faith ticket, some Muslim groups have accused Tinubu of favouring Christians, as shown in a report where over 60 per cent of appointments have been given to non-Muslims.

Those riding on the wings of Trump Christians’ killing tweet are now calling for a reversal of the same ticket for political equity for both faiths. Shooting down the Muslim-Muslim ticket cannot be an answer to the religious divide ripping across the Nigerian polity. The US cannot decide what is good for us as a nation. When voters outsource the exercise of power in a democracy to the ruling elite, the hope for transparent governance will always be incinerated by the greed of politicians who deploy ethnicity and religion for their own selfish ends.