Tuesday, 28 March 2023

BREAKING: NLC, TUC shelve proposed strike over cash scarcity - by Abiolapaul

March 28, 2023 The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have suspended their planned strike slated for Wednesday over the unavailability of naira notes. The two Labour bodies said they would monitor the availability of cash in commercial banks for two weeks before deciding on the next line of action. Presidents of NLC, Joe Ajaero and TUC Festus Osifo said this during a joint press conference on Tuesday in Abuja at the end of their National Executive Council meetings. Ajaero said after receiving briefings from its State councils in the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory, the NLC decided to defer the planned stay-at-home directive issued to workers last week. He said the NLC would resume the planned protest if naira notes become unavailable to Nigerians by the end of the two weeks. The NLC president said a committee has been set up to monitor situations in banks and report to it at the end of the two weeks extension.

Tinubu nominates Bagudu, Edun into Transition Council - Bolaji Ogundele

Edun bagudu March 28, 2023 The President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has nominated Kebbi Governor Atiku Bagudu and former Lagos Commissioner for Finance, Mr Olawale Edun, as members of the Presidential Transition Council (PTC). Chairman of the PTC and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, announced this on Tuesday during the maiden briefing by the Council. He also said the Council, which was inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari on February 14 has commenced executing its numerous tasks. Buhari, under Executive Order 14, which was signed on February 7, set up the 24-member Council, including two nominees of the President-elect. Mustapha said that since the inauguration, the council had met four times with the one held on Tuesday being the 5th held. He assured that the transition process is on course and all efforts are being made to ensure a smooth transition of power on May 29. “This process of the interface is necessary so as to keep Nigerians abreast of developments, build inclusiveness and lay a solid foundation for a peaceful transition of power in our country. The Presidential Transition Council which was inaugurated on 14th February 2023 is made up of 24 members which include two persons from the President-Elect’s team. “After the declaration of, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the President-Elect, the PTC requested him to nominate his representatives on the council as provided in the Executive Order. The President-elect nominated Atiku Bagudu, the Governor of Kebbi State and Chief Olawale Edun both of whom have since joined the process actively,” Mustapha said. He also said that to ensure a smooth transition process and make the work more efficient, the PTC broke into three committees. According to him, the first is Inauguration Committee which is responsible for organising the swearing-in and the inaugural parade; working out the details, programmes and other logistics necessary for the successful inauguration ceremonies. “This committee is headed by the SGF with 15 members and is working through 13 sub-committees facilitate effective planning and execution of the Inauguration activities. These sub-committees are: Media and Publicity; Church Service; Juma’at Service; Protocol and Invitations; Transport and Logistics; The Inauguration Lecture; Ceremonial Parade; Venues and Swearing in; Medical; Inauguration Dinner/Gala Night; Post Inauguration Luncheon; Accommodation and Children’s Day Celebration. “The President-elect has also been requested to nominate 13 persons that will work across the 13 sub-committees. The sub-committees have been working round the clock to ensure that all preparations are in place for a smooth inauguration ceremony. “The second committee is the Transition Documents Committee which is headed by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation. The committee is responsible for compiling all policy, programmes and projects of this administration in the form of a compendium that focuses on this government’s nine priority areas. “It is also in charge of ensuring the preparation of sectoral briefs and handover notes of the current administration for the in-coming administration. The Committee is working assiduously to finalize the compilation of these documents. “The third committee is the Facilities, Security and Intelligence Committee. The duty of this committee is to organise necessary facilities, including furnished office and personnel for the President-and Vice-President-Elect and their transition team; Provision of security for the President and Vice-President Elect; Provision of covert and overt security before, during and after the 2023 Presidential Inauguration including venues of events, hotels, airports, entry points, roads and general surveillance of FCT. This committee is headed by the National Security Adviser (NSA),” he said.

Ministerial aides condemn calls for interim govt. by Bisi Olaniyi

March 28, 2023 Many aides to Ministers under the aegis of the Network of Ministerial Aides (NETMA) have condemned the calls for an interim government. They said the calls against the inauguration of President-Elect Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for an Interim Government were condemnable and treasonable. The aides accused the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar and Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, of inciting Nigerians, particularly the youths, for a repeat of #EndSARS protests. NETMA, in an online statement by its leader, Dr. Philip Ugbodaga, declared that it was absurd for Atiku and Obi to claim they won the presidential election and incite Nigerians through massive protests while being in court. The aides said: “We note with grave concern, the current orchestrated actions of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Mr. Peter Obi, in attempting to subject our democratic institutions to ridicule and opprobrium. “High-profile elections in which the processes and results were brutally questioned, such as in Kenya, Venezuela and Myanmar have often fueled instability and distrust among the major ethnic groups. “In a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country like ours, allowing the present situation to fester, after the announcement of the winner of the presidential election, is not only antithetical to democratic consolidation, but to the peaceful transfer of power from the present administration to the incoming one. “The actions of Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi are jeopardising the integrity of the 2023 elections. We are particularly troubled that young, impressionable and innocent young people and some non-discerning adults are going along with Obi/Atiku post-election rhetoric and incendiary remarks.” NETMA’s members also stated that Atiku, Obi and their supporters were attempting to delegitimise the nation’s democracy through their unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud. They said: “Their (Atiku and Obi’s) action is one more step in delegitimising not just the incoming Asiwaju/Shettima administration, but Nigerian democracy generally. We consider this to be a dangerous path to thread. “Their consistent statements and remarks in their staged-managed protests and media interviews are laced with misleading statements and outright falsehoods, which amount to an assault on the democratic process which has been running without interruptions since 1999. “With a fragile polity such as ours, it is our fear that their current actions have the potential of pouring fuel into our democracy, which may be ignited as soon a match is lit. They are also preparing to strike the match any moment from now. “It is the height of absurdity for anyone to suggest the formation of an interim government in Nigeria, which Atiku, Obi and their supporters are clamouring for. Such a call has no place in our constitution and even common sense. No lover of Nigeria should call for the formation of an interim administration, simply because an opposition party failed to win the general election.” The aides also wondered why the presidential candidates of PDP and LP were not calling for the formation of interim administrations in the States where their parties won. Members of NETMA condemned the attempts by Atiku and Obi to demarket the President-elect (Tinubu), while urging them to continue to pursue their petitions in court.

Sunday, 17 July 2022

PRESS STATEMENT BY PASTOR ‘TUNDE BAKARE ON CONTROVERSIES SURROUNDING THE MUSLIM-MUSLIM TICKET OF THE ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS (APC)

ON SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2022 VENUE: THE CITADEL GLOBAL COMMUNITY CHURCH, 30, KUDIRAT ABIOLA WAY, OREGUN, IKEJA, LAGOS, NIGERIA Fellow Citizens of Nigeria: Following the announcement of the former Governor of Borno State, Alhaji Kashim Shettima Mustapha, as the running mate to the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by the candidate himself, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the national discourse has been in a tailspin with vehement opposition to this choice coming from members of my constituency, the Christian community. Accordingly, this announcement has been accompanied by rejections, resignations and resentment. Given the diversity of our nation, the mood of the nation and the degree to which true nationhood is yet to be forged, this aversion to what has been termed a Muslim-Muslim ticket is not unexpected. As standard-bearers of the message of the New Nigeria, we dream of a nation in which every Nigerian will be judged, not by their ethnicity, political leaning, regional affiliation or religious persuasion, but by the content of their character, as Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. once proclaimed in respect of his nation, the United States of America. We dream of a Nigeria where there will no longer be indigene or settler but only a Nigerian citizen. We dream of a Nigeria where state of residence will replace state of origin in our official forms and where ‘zoning’ or ‘Federal Character’ will become archival aspects of our journey into political maturity. We dream of a Nigeria in which every woman as well as every man will be able to aspire to any political office at any time without playing the ethnic card and without recourse to ‘it’s our turn’ or ‘it’s their turn.’ We dream of a Nigeria where the political mantra will no longer be “emi lo kan” or “awa lo kan” but “Nigeria lo kan;” a Nigeria where every Nigerian citizen, at any point in time, will have the absolute freedom and liberty to contest for any political office and will be assured of the citizens’ wise use of the power of the vote without consideration of what part of the country he or she is from or in what manner he or she chooses to worship God; a Nigeria where the phrase “tiwa n tiwa” will no longer be relevant because Nigeria will be for every Nigerian and every Nigerian will be for Nigeria. Our inspiration in this regard has always been the example of Israel which began with twelve tribes but is today one nation with no tribal distinction. However, we acknowledge that Israel’s journey to nationhood was a long and arduous journey. It took more than two millennia, a series of tumultuous experiences, and nationalistic leaders in the mould of King David to forge one cohesive nation from the twelve tribes of Israel. In the United States of America, 246 years after independence, factors like race and religion continue to play a role in that nation’s politics and, as such, America is still working towards “a more perfect union” in accordance with its constitution. The arduous road to nation-building is not a 100m dash. It is a marathon. This much was captured by President Barack Obama in his victory speech on November 5, 2008. Hear him: And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it’s been done in America for 221 years — block by block, brick by brick, callused hand by callused hand. This is why we choose to remain the bridge between Nigeria’s past, present and future, and the galvanising force that brings every Nigerian together around the ideal of a New Nigeria irrespective of what part of the country they come from, what political party they pitch their tent with, or in what way they choose to worship God. We choose to do this because we believe that building the New Nigeria is the calling upon every Nigerian worthy of the name. In line with this ethos, in tackling complex matters of nation-building, our position has always been in favour of statesmanship. On the difficult path to nation-building, statesmanship demands that leaders take into consideration the mood of the nation in making decisions, unless of course the motivation of such leaders is neither statesmanship nor nation-building but raw politics, for, as James Freeman Clarke once stated: A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman of the next generation. A politician looks for the success of his party; a statesman for that of his country. The statesman wishes to steer, while the politician is satisfied to drift. Nation-building is a deliberate process towards inclusion. It is an art as much as it is a science. It is not done only with the head; it is done also with the heart. Unlike politics, it is not all about the headcount, it is about the hearts and minds behind the headcounts. It is not all about the numbers, it is about the aspirations of the citizens who make up the numbers. The only way to bring those diverse heartbeats throbbing at different rates to the table of brotherhood and sisterhood is the way of compromise and trustful give-and-take. As President Dwight D. Eisenhower once said: People talk about the middle of the road as though it were unacceptable. Actually, all human problems, excepting morals, come into the gray areas. Things are not all black and white. There have to be compromises. The middle of the road is all of the usable surface. The extremes, right and left, are in the gutter. The very idea of representative democracy is the ideal that everyone will not only be represented but will feel represented in his or her government. It was why Thomas Jefferson once said: “That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.” The pillar of Northern Nigerian politics, the late Premier of Northern Nigeria, the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, recognised this moral obligation to ensure that due consideration is given to diversity of persuasions in public policy. Hence, his statement to the peoples of Northern Nigeria in a unifying message. Hear him: Subject to the overriding need to preserve law and order, it is our determination that everyone should have absolute liberty to practice his belief according to the dictates of his conscience. As a result, Northern Nigeria had its political foundation built on the principles of inclusion and religious harmony. This value system of religious neutrality and inclusion played out when military forces from Northern Nigeria took over power in the 1966 counter coup. The military had the confidence to leave the nation in the custody of a Christian from a minority ethnic group in the North. General Yakubu Gowon would go on to govern Nigeria for nine years keeping Nigeria one amidst a Civil War. This moment calls for every Nigerian, from the North, South, East and West, to renew our commitment to nationhood, building upon what worked in the time of our founding fathers, while learning from their mistakes and imperfections as we build a more perfect union. Against this backdrop, on the one hand, I challenge the political class not to sacrifice nationhood on the altar of political expediency but to demonstrate, as candidates, that they can unify the nation as president. This is the time to show maturity in decision-making and to give every Nigerian a sense of belonging. This is the time to become statesmen and stateswomen, mindful of the next generation, and not just politicians, consumed by the next election. On the other hand, I charge my fellow Christian leaders to approach the issue in question and the broader context of the 2023 elections with civility, clarity and with continued hope in the possibilities of a united Nigeria — a New Nigeria that works for every Nigerian, Christian as well as Muslim. Nationhood, rather than divisiveness must be the objective of every engagement. As Christian leaders, we must also realise that the church in Nigeria is today paying for decades of erroneous teaching that posited that Christians have no business in politics. What is happening today is the price we are having to pay for the years of failure of the church to strategically participate in the political process. The antagonism that was meted to some of us who have ventured from the pulpit to the podium, even from amongst our fellow Christian leaders, was always a pointer that a day would come when the church would face a rude awakening of the consequence of passivity, apathy, non-participation and an anachronistic adherence to the Aaronic priesthood, especially long after the author and finisher of our faith had moved on to the Melchizedek priesthood. Failure to admit this would amount to hypocrisy. Going forward, ahead of 2023, we must learn from our mistakes. Christian leaders must, at this point, bring the candidates and their running mates to the negotiation table — doing so with an open mind and based on a clearly articulated charter for nation-building and national development. Such strategic engagement would be reminiscent of the interventions of the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) in 2010 when it engaged the presidential candidates on the basis of the SNG Charter, A Contract to Save and Transform Nigeria. In this regard, Nigerian Christian leaders must provide answers to a cogent question: What kind of nation do Nigerian Christians want? Guided by the answers to this question, Christian leaders must, at this point, convene a strategic concourse to define the minimum standards across sectors of governance below which no Nigerian, Christian or Muslim, must be subjected. The SNG Charter and the Nigerian Charter for National Reconciliation and Reintegration which was unanimously adopted by the delegates to the 2014 National Conference, can be a springboard for such sector-by-sector deliberations. This must be done between now and September when the campaigns will officially commence. The Charter may be launched in Abuja and may be termed The Abuja Declaration for Nationhood. Thereafter, Christian leaders must then carefully engage each presidential candidate and running mate based on that Charter and provide a unified direction to the body of Christ in Nigeria having assessed each presidential/vice-presidential ticket based on key performance indicators around the Charter. This would be a more mature, structured and strategic way to respond to the situation as against the emotional reactions that have dominated the polity since the choice of a running mate was made by the APC presidential candidate. For the Christians in Northern Nigeria who feel marginalised by the choice of a Northern Muslim as running mate, the time has come to upgrade the conversation from politics to governance. The time has come to interrogate the impact of politics on development. In this regard, key questions must be asked: 1. What will the candidates do to change the social, economic and political landscapes in Northern Nigeria to ensure the emergence of an enlightened electorate that will make political decisions not based on religion or region but on rational indices of character, competence, capacity and policy? 2. Reports attributed to UNICEF suggest that 18.5 million Nigerian children of school age are out of school – an increase from the 13 million previously reported. The majority of these are from Northern Nigeria and there are reports indicating that the North East accounts for 60 per cent of Nigeria's out-of-school children. The running mate of the APC candidate is from the North East. What will this ticket do to get these Nigerian children back to school? What will this ticket do to put an end to the ignoble and shameful situation in which the political class has, over the years weaponised the poverty and illiteracy of a population and used it to perpetuate itself in power? What are their antecedents? What have they done in the past to address these issues? This is the root of the unrest in the North, a crisis of human development, the consequence of which Nigerians, Christians as well as Muslims are faced with today. These are issues that must be brought before the ticket and before every party and candidate for the presidency. It is, therefore, time to upgrade the conversation from politics to governance. Even as we advocate for balanced political representation, the weightier matters should be the stark realities of underdevelopment, not just in the North but across the nation. Finally, I am fully persuaded that peace is the foundation for increase and prosperity, and until we learn to execute true justice and show mercy and compassion everyone to his brother, the peace we long for in this nation may continue to elude us. I believe this is why the Psalmist declared in Psalm 122:6–9: 6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you. 7 Peace be within your walls, Prosperity within your palaces.” 8 For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say, “Peace be within you.” 8 Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek your good. Dear Brothers and Sisters, without true justice, equity and fair play, we will continue to fertilise instability and chaos in the land. The word of the Lord that came to Prophet Zechariah confirms this. Listen to him in 9 Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying, 9 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Execute true justice, Show mercy and compassion Everyone to his brother. Zechariah 7:8–12: 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, The alien or the poor. Let none of you plan evil in his heart Against his brother.’ 11 “But they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they could not hear. 12 Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Thus great wrath came from the LORD of hosts. There you have it boldly written. Without justice, equity and fair play, the notion of ‘One Nigeria’ will remain a desert mirage. It is, therefore, imperative that we act with understanding of the times and rise up to the challenge of nation-building that this occasion calls for. Thank you for listening, God bless you, and God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And may Nigeria win in 2023 in Jesus’ Mighty Name, Amen.

PT State of the Race: Storm over Tinubu’s same faith ticket By Bisi Abidoye

Mr Tinubu on Tuesday finally picked Kashim Shettima, a senator, former two-term governor of Borno and a Muslim, as his running mate. And a storm has since pounded him within and outside the APC. As presidential aspirants took the podium one after the other to announce their withdrawals for Bola Tinubu at the National Convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja on the night of June 8, a terse message began circulating on social media among the delegates. “Reject Muslim-Muslim ticket,” it said. The source of the message was anonymous. But there was no doubt as to its purpose: to force the delegates to ponder the dilemma awaiting their party should they nominate the former Lagos State governor as its flag bearer. The party’s powerful state governors had agreed that the ticket should go to the South. Mr Tinubu was the only Muslim among the southern frontrunners. But he was also the only one among them not suitable to pick a running mate from the Northern Muslim majority base of the APC, and so the obvious target of the message. An official of the party later rose to shoot down the message before voting started, assuring the Convention that no aspirant had taken such a decision. But just over a month after his landslide victory in the primary, and after weeks of dithering and the subterfuge of a placeholder, Mr Tinubu on Tuesday finally picked Kashim Shettima, a senator, former two-term governor of Borno and a Muslim, as his running mate. And a storm has since pounded him within and outside the APC. Power shift Many may have forgotten that the dominant issue in this election cycle had been the clamour for the next president to be elected from the southern part of the country, after the eight-year tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari. But the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) added its own demand that the president should also be a Christian since Mr Buhari is a Muslim. However, after the association was accused of targeting Mr Tinubu and trying to deny the rights of southern Muslims, it tweaked the demand to a rejection of a Muslim-Muslim or same faith ticket. It was therefore no surprise that CAN, the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria and Christian leaders especially in the North have taken Mr Tinubu’s pick of Mr Shettima as a slap to their faces. John Hayab, the chairman of CAN in Kaduna State, which long-running war with Governor Nasir el-Rufai heightened when the governor picked Hadiza Balarabe, a fellow Muslim, as his deputy for the 2019 election, has been understandably bullish on the controversy. In an interview with Vanguard newspaper shortly after Mr Tinubu announced Mr Shettima last week, Mr Hayab said CAN had prepared for the announcement. “We have put some media outlets on notice. All we are waiting for is the right signal to give a full-blown reaction. We’ll escalate this issue because our call for fairness and the balancing of the presidential ticket for the sake of justice, unity and fairness apparently fell on deaf ears. “However, CAN is strongly determined to sacrifice everything to protect the interest of the Church in Nigeria. We will not be moved by any form of intimidation,” the CAN leader in the Northern region added. Surprising, however, has been the reaction of Babachir Lawal, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation who was one of those who collected the APC nomination form for Mr Tinubu back in May. Following the announcement, he demanded President Buhari veto Mr Tinubu’s choice, and after the president demurred, vowed to lead a campaign against his party’s candidate among Northern Christians. Ironically, Mr Lawal was a member of the Planning and Strategy Committee of the Tinubu Campaign Organisation that also advised the candidate over the selection of his running mate. The committee had highlighted the merits and demerits of Muslim-Muslim and Muslim-Christian tickets but did not rule out either of the options in its report. While acknowledging that a Muslim-Christian ticket would sustain the established religious balance in presidential tickets since 1999 and appeal to Christians in the North Central and North East, it however warned that Muslims in the North-West and North-East might vote for northern candidates such as Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP and Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, which could result in a substantial loss of votes for the APC. On the Muslim-Muslim option, the committee said it would neutralise the voting strength of the PDP and NNPP and satisfy the Muslim community which has the numerical voting strength and has been the mainstay of support for the APC. But it also warned that the combination “will trigger a large-scale revolt from the Christian communities across Nigeria against our party, thereby resulting in substantial loss of votes that may affect the overall victory of the election. In our current nascent democracy, it has never been tried but when tried, the winner was not sworn in, even though it was adjudged as the most free and fair election.” Since Mr Tinubu announced his choice, Mr Lawal appeared to have taken the seeming snub of Christians personal, going across television stations and issuing statements to attack Mr Tinubu and predicting his doom. He had acted in the same manner days before the presidential primary after Mr Tinubu’s outburst in Abeokuta in which he derided the president. A storm forewarned Since the anger of the Christian community was forewarned, why did Mr Tinubu go ahead to choose the combination, which for the first time in the Fourth Republic left out a major faith from the ticket of a major party? First, it may be expedient to stress the point now that religious balance is a recent concept in the Nigerian political processes. The First Republic ran the parliamentary system and did not feature a direct election of the President and Prime Minister. Also, the first two military rulers in the 13-year military interregnum that followed, Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi and Yakubu Gowon, both had deputies of the same Christian faith as themselves. But in the first election, after Nigeria switched to the American-type presidential system, the candidates of three of the five parties were northern Muslims who saw the need to pick southern Christians as running mates to expand their reach. However, the two southerners among them, Obafemi Awolowo and Nnamdi Azikiwe, who eventually returned first and second runners-up respectively in the 1979 presidential poll, picked fellow Christians. The National Party of Nigeria, which had the most support outside the region of its candidate, Shehu Shagari, won the poll, albeit not without controversy. In the next election of 1983, Mr Awolowo picked a Muslim running mate but that was perhaps because he had realised the need to appeal to Northern voters, whom he appeared to have ignored with his previous pick of Phillip Umeadi from the old Anambra State in the South. However, after yet another military intervention, during which some events had awoken religious sensibilities in Nigerians, there was an uproar when Moshood Abiola picked Babagana Kingibe as his running mate for the ill-fated June 12, 1993, presidential election. At that time though, the two parties allowed on the field were essentially government parastatals. The military government of Ibrahim Babangida had formed the parties by decree after denying registration to any of the scores of political associations formed by the politicians. After Mr Abiola’s ticket defeated the “balanced” Muslim-Christian ticket of Bashir Tofa and Sylvester Ugoh, many political observers hastily ticked the election as the moment Nigerians rose above sectional and religious divisions. Unfortunately, however, the whimsical annulment of that election by Mr Babangida pushed Nigeria into a political impasse that has deepened the same divisions. Mr Babangida’s military government had advised Mr Abiola to pick Paschal Bafyau, a Christian from Adamawa State and president of the Nigeria Labour Congress at the time. Although he has cited one flimsy reason after the other to explain why he voided the election, the former dictator has never included the absence of religious balance among the reasons for denying Mr Abiola’s ticket its electoral victory. Regional and religious balance Parties in the Fourth Republic have since embraced regional and religious balances as a tradition. But the observation of that tradition has been made convenient by the fact that the major tickets have exclusively featured Northern Muslims and Southern Christians since 1999. Each of those two groups constitutes the religious majority on its side of the country but a minority on the other side. It is largely for that reason that no Northern Christian or a Southern Muslim (until Mr Tinubu) has been on the presidential ticket of a major party in this dispensation. Jerry Gana, David Mark and Sarah Jibril are some of the Northern Christians to have run for the tickets of major parties or on the tickets of smaller parties, but none of them recorded large impressions on the polity in their presidential bids. If they were southerners, they probably would have been more successful in their quests. Tinubu’s travails In that regard, we can better understand Mr Tinubu’s travails. He has seized the Christians’ southern ticket. To show fairness to the dispossessed and balance the national political equation, Christians asked him to use his historic feat to also disrupt the political order across the two rivers, by handing the Christians the northern ticket that has by tradition belonged to Muslims. While such a geo-religious Minority-Minority ticket has dim electoral prospects, it has a high moral value. It will elevate Christians to a height they have never attained before in the North and show the progress of Northern Christians in the political calculus. The same scenario will apply to Southern Muslims going forward. However, in his statement announcing Mr Shettima’s pick, the APC candidate tried to discourage the elevation of religious divisions. He said: “I am mindful of the energetic discourse concerning the possible religion of my running mate. Just and noble people have talked to me about this. Some have counselled that I should select a Christian to please the Christian community. Others have said I should pick a Muslim to appeal to the Muslim community. Clearly, I cannot do both. “Both sides of the debate have impressive reasons and passionate arguments supporting their position. Both arguments are right in their own way. But neither is right in the way that Nigeria needs at the moment. As president, I hope to govern this nation toward uncommon progress. This will require innovation. It will require steps never before taken. It will also require decisions that are politically difficult and rare. “If I am to be that type of President, I must begin by being that type of candidate. Let me make the bold and innovative decision not to win political points but to move the nation and our party’s campaign closer to the greatness that we were meant to achieve. “ Here is where politics ends, and true leadership must begin.” Realpolitik Notwithstanding those stirring words, realpolitik was the overriding factor for the candidate in the choice. The APC, perhaps due to its antecedent of leveraging the popularity of Mr Buhari among Northern Muslims to unseat the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015, continues to rely on the support of that segment of the population. President Buhari not being on its ticket for the first time in its life takes the APC into uncharted territory. Mr Kwankwaso, who is from Kano in the North-West; Mr Abubakar, who is from Adamawa in the North East; and newcomer Datti Baba-Ahmed of the Labour Party who is from Kaduna also in the North-west; will certainly seek advantage in the campaign for Northern Muslim votes should the ruling party give its ticket to an adherent of the other religion. Religion has become a big part of people’s identities in the North and has basic influences on their interactions. The Northern Christians, who sometimes dispute that they are the minority in the North, are in a struggle for self-assertion against their Muslim neighbours who have dominated the politics of the region and Nigeria. That rivalry runs deep. So, just as Mr Lawal is angry at his side being overlooked, so would members of his party of the other faith feel had they been the side overlooked. Mr Tinubu and the APC probably see it as suicidal to leave the rich electoral field of the Northern Muslim voters to its opponents, just to score a moral point with a symbolic gesture. Another point that has been made by some APC supporters, albeit inelegantly, is that the APC has never enjoyed strong support among Christian communities especially in the two easter zones of the South and across the North and that nominating a Christian running mate will not change that situation. In the 2015 and 2019 elections, most Christian leaders openly campaigned for opposition candidates and the APC lost in most Christian-dominated areas. The APC is probably braced for the continuation of that trend and thinks it wisest to focus on standing firm with old friends. However, there are seven months before the elections and the implications of Mr Tinubu’s choice would have become clearer before the polls open on the morning of February 25. Kwankwaso’s running mate Mr Tinubu was not the only presidential candidate to substitute his running mate last week. Mr Kwankwaso of the NNPP did the same by naming Isaac Idahosa as his substantive pick. The choice has attracted little attention and Mr Kwankwaso may even be envious of Mr Tinubu for the fury that his own choice had ignited. The NNPP had spent some time in a merger talk with the Labour Party until both parties went their separate ways after failing to agree on which platform to adopt and who between Mr Kwankwaso and Peter Obi should lead a joint ticket. Mr Obi was the first to name his own substantive running mate while the NNPP hopeful waited until the last day to file his own pick with INEC. Mr Idahosa is a newcomer to politics. But that does not mean he was unknown. He is a pentecostal pastor from Edo State but based in Lagos. It is not clear which state he will choose as his political base. It is also uncertain what value he will be adding to the NNPP ticket. But videos of him that appeared since his nomination show he performs miracles. Mr Kwankwaso has focussed his activities in the North. Apart from a few big-name politicians defecting to the party in Cross Rivers and Akwa Ibom, the NNPP remains unknown in most parts of the South. The party and its presidential candidate have even noticeably fallen off from attention on Twitter, where it had momentarily become visible while the courtship with Mr Obi lasted. To run a serious presidential race, he has to find his way back into attention, this time on the ground in the South too. Maybe that is the reason he chose the miracle worker, Mr Idahosa.

Kashim Shettima and the fury of Christendom, By Festus Adedayo

Let’s have Christendom do more critical assessments of the candidates, please. The truth is, at this precarious stage of Nigerian national life, religion is far too minute an issue that should bother us, no matter the frustration, mistreatment and maltreatment by the forces of Ananias and Sapphira on the prowl. Topmost of our concerns, if we are truly interested in the togetherness and future of Nigeria and our children, is security, followed by the economy and national cohesion. Thus, I expect that Christians will centralise their concern about Shettima around how true or not the allegation that he is in bed with terrorism. Two anecdotes of the extreme reaction of scorned women will avail, if you are looking for a corollary to Nigerian Christendom’s tempestuous anger at the choice of Kashim Shettima. A Muslim and former governor of Borno State, Shettima was recently chosen as vice presidential candidate to Bola Tinubu, a Muslim and presidential flag-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In traditional Africa, which celebrates centuries of polygamy, incidences of husband-wife tension, confrontation, jealousy and bitterness have led to the destruction of polygynous homes. One of such is Richard Edward Dennett’s anecdotal explanation of the life of Africa through folklores. Dennett, an English trader who lived in what is today Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), translated a native story of two women in polygyny, whose husband had gone into the forest in search of game. On the day of his return, the women then decided to prepare chicoanga, a native bread, for him. As the younger wife went in search of condiments, the elder wife tried to kill the son of the younger wife, ostensibly due to perceived favouritism in the home and, apparently, because the child was a “much brighter and more intelligent child” than hers. In mistaken identity, however, she killed her own son. Orlando Owoh, late Yoruba musician renowned for his guttural voice and predilection for affixing anecdotes to his musical offerings, also gave fillip to this anecdote. His own narration, not dissimilar to the DRC anecdote above, also speaks to the extreme that a woman scorned in matrimony, either real or imagined, can go to. In the Owoh allegory, the senior wife in the matrimony also feels the insufficient possibilities of advancement of her schooling child. She then laces a beautifully prepared porridge meal meant for her senior wife’s son with a lethal poison. Unfortunately for her, the meal was eventually devoured by her own child. The two allegories above point to extreme reactions and the extent that Nigerian Christendom may go in its tirade against the APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket. English playwright, William Congreve, explains the anger better through a line, “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” in his The Mourning Bride. The line, recited from this tragic play during its first performance in 1697, has since become an enduring reference to the fury of females when cross. It was uttered by a character in the play called Zara, a queen, who upon being captured, gets entangled in a lethal love triangle. Like the commotion that always follows the favoritism of decisions taken by a husband in a polygamous home, Kashim Shettima’s choice has kindled a fire of discontent in the Nigerian religious polygamy. In its decision to pick Shettima, the APC choice has rightly been interpreted by Christians, the major co-wife in a polygynous relationship in the polity, to mean insolence, impudence, disdain and a belittling of their teeming population in Nigeria. A conflict of co-wives in polygamous families in Africa is often characterised by commotion, petty accusations, outbursts of verbal abuse, harassment, physical violence, accusation and counter-accusation. Provoked by the uneven distribution of privileges and attention in households – whether material or sexual – the conflicts that come with the tempestuous relationship of co-wives in African polygamous marriages are ubiquitous. Those embroiled in polygamy know that one sure way to avoid its attendant fury is through fairness, equity and justice. However, these are very rare virtues that can be dispassionately dispensed by mortal men. Even the Islamic holy writ counsels equitable relationships with women as basis for delving into the stormy waters of polygny. A serial philanderer and polygamist, my musical idol, Ayinla Omowura, at some critical point in his life, came to the realisation of the dilemma of polygamy and counseled, in a vinyl he entitled Oniyawo pupo – Multiple Liaisons – that agabagebe – imparity, hypocrisy and injustice – will ruin an inequitable polygamous home. This chaotic environment seems to be a most fitting analogy that can explain the scenario that Tinubu and his APC provoked by their unconscionable choice of Shettima. While in polygamy as a cultural practice, the hierarchy of wives is a notorious fact accepted by all parties, with the hierarchical positioning of “wives” hotly avoided in the Nigerian religious polygamy. Framers of the Nigerian constitution, aware of the bedlam that these wives could unfold, inserted it in the grundnorm that the state would be equitable in its dealings with and treatment of its incendiary religious wives. Non-compliance with the principle of parity and equity in polygamy has led to strife, riots and discontent in times past. The co-wives of Christianity, Islam and traditional religious practices have hotly contested spatial relevance, with dire consequences for the polity. This has bred conflicts of immense proportion. However, not minding the constitutional non-recognition of any principal wife by the Nigerian state, rulers of Nigeria, over the years, have gone ahead to delineate the marital space, not hiding their flawed affections for Islam as the principal wife. Christianity has been allotted the position of the second wife. …I however think that Christians and Nigerians in general are treating skin rash, in this fuss over Kashim Shettima’s religion, while neglecting a far more debilitating manifestation of leprosy. Southern Christians, especially, are not being as critical as they should be in this regard. From all they have gathered about Tinubu, estimating his presidency – God forbid – through the lens of religion, to my mind, is a lame mis-direction of focus. Since 1966 when the military took over government and proper federalism was thrown into the sewer, and up until about two decades ago, of all the noticeable cleavages of Nigeria’s aspiring nationhood, religion was never dominant or, at best, it played a superficial role in considerations for elective, selective or appointive offices. Ethnicity has been a far dominant cleavage which Nigeria has battled since Fredrick Lugard selfishly soldered uneven nations together as a country. Even under the unelected despotic military rules of Aguiyi Ironsi, Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Mohammed, Olusegun Obasanjo, Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, to Abdulsalami Abubakar, where balancing was not expected to be an issue, there was less furore about the religious composition of those running the State. That was why Babagana Kingibe could pair with MKO Abiola and their audacious sameness of religion was immaterial once the ticket held promise of a greater Nigeria. However, the infernal decision to annul the results of the 1993 election by the ruling class of the time drove Nigerians to their different tents. Then emerged the scramble of Nigerians for an identity which represented a canopy that could shield and protect the people from the manic and Dracula-like teeth of the Nigerian state. Religion came to their rescue. From 1999, the duo of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari have reified ethnicity and made it, as they say on the street, big deal. In his dual appearance as Nigerian leader, Obasanjo struggled to cripple the cleavage of ethnicity. If Nigeria had had earlier or successive leaders with such mindset as Obasanjo’s, the country would most probably be on her way today to wiping out ethnic considerations in matters of state. Obasanjo’s government made nonsense of an emilokan or awalokan (it is my or our turn) as a motive for an ethnic group to rally round leadership. In Obasanjo, Yoruba sucked fewer oranges from the Nigerian governmental tree, even when they had their son at the top. TEXEM Advert While promoting the Aliko Dangotes of this world to undeserved financial superstardom, Obasanjo was obsessed with the crippling of his Ogun State kinsman, Mike Adenuga Jr. on baseless and trumped up allegations; haranguing him in the process in an unprecedented acrimony. Contrarily, Jonathan and Buhari clothed their kins with decorative apparels. I am sure Obasanjo is regretting his gross, silly selfishness in the guise of nationalism today. Buhari went even a notch higher than Jonathan in decorating his kinsmen with pearls. Region and religion became the passport for occupying national offices under him, so much that even terrorists who kill Nigerians in droves get presidential support for their ultra violence, once they flash their shared Fulani identity with the president. With all these as backcloth, it will be arrant nonsense to quarrel with Christendom for fussing over the poster of a principal wife that Tinubu and his APC have proclaimed on Islam by their choice of Shettima. The fusses can be likened to the physical and verbal aggression that is common in polygamous homes. It is a clear clone of how, in traditional Africa, frustrated at being cast in a second fiddle role to play in the home, a scorned woman, trying to preserve, secure and maintain her position, resorts to the gory and diabolical antics as told by both Orlando Owoh and Richard Dennett. Wives, most times the scorned senior wife, went/go into unimaginable extents to wreak havoc on the matrimony. These negative actions range from securing dangerous love charms, potions, entering into witchcraftcy, sorcery and even, murder. Tinubu and his APC seem to have given sexual and affectionate privileges to Islam as co-wife in a secular Nigerian state and cannot now complain about the anguish and mental torture that Christianity feels as a result of this humiliation. Having said all the above, I however think that Christians and Nigerians in general are treating skin rash, in this fuss over Kashim Shettima’s religion, while neglecting a far more debilitating manifestation of leprosy. Southern Christians, especially, are not being as critical as they should be in this regard. From all they have gathered about Tinubu, estimating his presidency – God forbid – through the lens of religion, to my mind, is a lame mis-direction of focus. I do not think a religious individual will carry the kind of heavy, tarnishing load of allegations of malaises which Tinubu and Shettima carry on their persons today. These are acts and individual manifestations which Christianity teaches its members not to be unequally yoked with. I think that the allegations against the duo are far more weighty infractions as to make Christian fusses over their religious orientation needless, or at best secondary. Let’s have Christendom do more critical assessments of the candidates, please. We all know that those politicians who religionists furiously canvass to be in office because of their Islamic or Christian names are as far away from religion as gold-plated metal is far from original gold. Whether they bear Christian or Muslim names, the main religion of those office-seeking fellows is politics. Some analysts have labeled as misbegotten the clarion call to bring to the front burner allegations against both Tinubu and Shettima. They also label those allegations as old wives’ tale. However, sane people should know that unexplained accusations of drug couriering in about two decades, recently sauced with incontrovertible and unassailable loads of evidence, for which the accused has no single word of rebuttal, should rank first among our bothers. Else, we are all just going to have a Pablo Escobar reincarnate in Aso Rock. An explaination of this baggage should carry a far more consequential weight than the texture of his religiosity of that of his anointed vice. An old wives’ fuss about whether Tinubu is a czar of fakery or not is, to my mind, far more damaging and of national importance to all of us than concerns about whether the same man, whose wife shares a similar pedestal with Christian elders, will be equitable in dealing with other faiths. Illustrated by the intervention of the biblical Queen Esther on behalf of her people in King Ahasuerus’ “zi oza room,” against the rampaging forces of Haman, the power of the bedroom that women command cannot be discountenanced. This is against the backdrop of the fact that the Nigerian constitution has made robotic mannequins of vices and deputies in a presidential system of government; a fact that is always further exploited by men occupying these executive positions, who harbour totalitarian and totalistic views of power. You may want to ask what Yemi Osinbajo has been able to swing the way of Christendom in his eight years of figurative vice presidency. Now, extending this counterfactual situtation further, what can Ifeanyi Okowa swing for the Christian fold in an Atiku Abubakar presidency, God forbid, that Remi Tinubu cannot swing far more in her husband’s presidency – God forbid? The truth is, at this precarious stage of Nigerian national life, religion is far too minute an issue that should bother us, no matter the frustration, mistreatment and maltreatment by the forces of Ananias and Sapphira on the prowl. Topmost of our concerns, if we are truly interested in the togetherness and future of Nigeria and our children, is security, followed by the economy and national cohesion. Thus, I expect that Christians will centralise their concern about Shettima around how true or not the allegation that he is in bed with terrorism. A man who had at his beck and call a heap of classified state dossiers while in office and who should know – Goodluck Jonathan – has come in the open to accuse Shettima of dalliance with terrorism, while he was governor. This is a weighty allegation and in dire need of cogent explanations, not the waffling on the social media. There are also flying allegations that Shettima, as Borno State governor, prodded by Lagos, was behind the Chibok girls kidnap, so as to demonise the Jonathan government, preparatory to the final death-knell on his government by the APC. The allegation claims further that the girls thereafter entered a place of no return because the kidnap turned awry. It is also alleged that Shettima’s reward for that daredevilry was the Nigerian vice presidency. A number of other untoward allegations decorate Shettima’s neck like slave trade era neck-manacles. This is a man who, God forbid, Tinubu becomes Nigeria’s president and any evil, God forbid, happens to him, stands the chance of being Nigeria’s president. With this, he will then return Nigeria to the terror-laden years of Muhammadu Buhari, where the cadavers of priests and men of God in general have become special delicacy in Fulani herdsmen-terrorists’ pot of soup. Let’s have Christendom do more critical assessments of the candidates, please. We all know that those politicians who religionists furiously canvass to be in office because of their Islamic or Christian names are as far away from religion as gold-plated metal is far from original gold. Whether they bear Christian or Muslim names, the main religion of those office-seeking fellows is politics.

The Muslim-Muslim ticket and religious mobilisation in Nigeria, By Jibrin Ibrahim ByJibrin Ibrahim

What is new in Nigeria today is the climate of suspicion and fear over what many Christians see as an Islamisation agenda. The APC elected a Southern Muslim, while the PDP elected a Northern Muslim with a Southern Christian running mate. It might well be that these choices were activated by the strategic search for winning combinations but for many within the Christian community, the strategies adapted might also have religious connotations… It has become very divisive and significant confidence building measures would be necessary to make the case that there is no hidden agenda against the Christian community. The Muslim-Muslim ticket chosen by the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has generated controversy since 2015, when he sought to be Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate. Today, he is the presidential candidate and therefore got the opportunity to implement what he has canvassed for a very long time. It is clear that Bola Tinubu is not a religious bigot and is therefore not making the choice to achieve a religious objective. He belongs to the group of analysts that believes the 1993 victory of the Abiola-Kingibe, Muslim-Muslim ticket was a winning formula. The argument is that a Yoruba candidate from the South-West needs the to generate electoral support from the core Northern Muslim electorate to win. The reasoning in the APC camp is that the 2023 elections might be a close call, with the Labour Party taking significant Southern and Christian votes and Kwankwaso’s New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) taking a big chunk of the Kano and core Muslim votes. This is not the only political permutation being circulated. Others have argued that there is a significant Christian vote in Northern Nigeria that would be alienated by the option of a Muslim-Muslim ticket. These votes would therefore be lost to Tinubu’s APC and go to the Labour Party, or Atiku’s PDP might emerge as the beneficiary of the calculus. This would also have an impact on many Christian majority states and constituencies where Christians enjoy numerical advantage. The danger is that the very long campaign period that is coming up might have a focus on religious mobilisation along this divide, and that would be very bad for the future of Nigerian democracy because, essentially, issue-based politics would be thrown under the bus as religious affiliation becomes the key signifier of political choice. The current vice president to Muhammadu Buhari, Professor Yemi Osinbajo is a pastor of the Redeem Christian Church of God and there is no evidence to suggest he was able to use his position to achieve results for the Christian community. The general situation is that Nigerians are very dismissive of the vice presidential position, often arguing that all powers are in the hands of the president, which might not be completely true. The massive level of heat generated by Tinubu’s proclivity for a Muslim vice president might seem to suggest that the position is an important one and that therefore the stakes are very high. The current vice president to Muhammadu Buhari, Professor Yemi Osinbajo is a pastor of the Redeem Christian Church of God and there is no evidence to suggest he was able to use his position to achieve results for the Christian community. The general situation is that Nigerians are very dismissive of the vice presidential position, often arguing that all powers are in the hands of the president, which might not be completely true. The reason why the Muslim-Muslim ticket generates so much controversy is because what is at stake is not the strategic concerns about winning permutations, but real anger within the Christian community, of the imbalance in political appointments under President Buhari. Earlier this week, for example, the Christian political leaders within the APC in the nineteen Northern states met in Abuja on July 11 to deliberate on the issue of the party’s Muslim-Muslim ticket and its implications for the country. They argued that the president, the chairman of the party, deputy chairman North, the president of the Senate, the speaker and deputy speaker, and now both the presidential candidate and his running mate, etc., are all Muslims. The narrative is that of the marginalisation of Christian leaders. They also point out that the preamble of the APC’s constitution states that it, “will guarantee equal opportunity for all, mutual and peaceful co-existence, respect and understanding, eliminating all forms of discrimination and social injustice among Nigerian”, and that the Muslim-Muslim ticket appears to have violated this provision. They conclude that: “Nigeria is a multi-religious and a constitutional democracy and NOT a theocracy with religion as a major national fault line which cannot be whimsically manipulated without dire political consequences on our peaceful co-existence as a people”. What is new in Nigeria today is the climate of suspicion and fear over what many Christians see as an Islamisation agenda. The emergence of Boko Haram and their Jihadi agenda has always been read to be the spearhead of this agenda. At the same time, there has been significant spread of the farmer-herder conflicts and violence, which has developed into large scale banditry and mass kidnapping, also largely seen as another part of the hidden agenda against the Christian communit The former secretary to the Federal Government, Babachir Lawal, while expressing his anger at the Muslim-Muslim ticket declared: “Now tell me which Christian will vote for APC with the following contraption: Moslem presidential candidate (Lagos), Moslem vice presidential candidate (Borno), Moslem national chairman (Nasarawa), Moslem deputy national chairman (Borno), Moslem president (Katsina); Moslem Senate president (Yobe); Moslem speaker (Lagos); Moslem deputy speaker (Plateau) e.t.c. APC the great! Wu na de try woh!” Maybe it is worthwhile reminding ourselves that Chief Obafemi Awolowo of the Unity Party of Nigeria contested the 1979 presidential election with Philip Umeadi as his running mate. Both were Christians and Southerners. Way back during the First Republic, Awolowo promoted an electoral alliance for the 1964 general election, the United Progressive Grand Alliance, in which the two main parties were his Action Group and the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons led by Nnamdi Azikiwe, both Southern Christians. After the elections, Azikiwe refused to form a government with Awolowo and linked up with Ahmadu Bello’s Northern Peoples’ Congress. To go back to the 1979 election, Nnamdi Azikiwe, leader of the Nigerian Peoples’ Party, also had a Christian-Christian ticket with Professor Ishaya Audu as his vice presidential contestant. Both were Christians; the latter a pastor, while Azikiwe was from the South-East and Audu was from the North. What is new in Nigeria today is the climate of suspicion and fear over what many Christians see as an Islamisation agenda. The emergence of Boko Haram and their Jihadi agenda has always been read to be the spearhead of this agenda. At the same time, there has been significant spread of the farmer-herder conflicts and violence, which has developed into large scale banditry and mass kidnapping, also largely seen as another part of the hidden agenda against the Christian community. The dominance of Muslim officers in the command and control of the armed forces and security agencies is often cited as proof of this agenda. It is for these reasons that the Christian community has advocated for the next president to come from the Christian community on the basis of the zoning of the presidency to the South. The APC elected a Southern Muslim, while the PDP elected a Northern Muslim with a Southern Christian running mate. It might well be that these choices were activated by the strategic search for winning combinations but for many within the Christian community, the strategies adapted might also have religious connotations. That is where we are on the matter today. It has become very divisive and significant confidence building measures would be necessary to make the case that there is no hidden agenda against the Christian community.