A National Own Goal: On Nigeria's Electoral Jihad and Crusade
Why APC's Same-faith Ticket Will Fail at the Presidential Polls?
A LONG READ
“All elections should be meritorious. So when it comes to don’t vote for him because he’s a Christian, or don’t vote for him because he’s a Muslim, that’s when I run away, to me it’s absolute nonsense,” says Tunde Odunlade, an artist, curator and director of Tunde Odunlade Arts and Culture Connexions, Ibadan, during an interview.
Religion is a recurring attendant to party politics and elections in Nigeria. Risen to an all-time high by the ruling party’s fielding of a same-religion ticket, other religious groups would not stay put. The same-religion ticket of APC has been considered an affront against many Christians who constitute a significant voting bloc in Nigeria. Would this not lead to a clash between Islam and Christianity? Should it appear so, wouldn’t this be a dangerous road to tread? Odunlade pines that “merit should be the guiding principle in electing candidates to office,’ but then, would this be the case in light of the apparent role religion and ethnicity play in our polity?
RELIGIOUSLY POLITICAL
Historically, monarchy derived legitimacy from religion. The bond between community and monarchs was sustained by religious figures who sanctioned the reigns of monarchs and the devotion of their subjects. In some African societies, monarchs were next to the Gods. In Europe, it was similar. The Divine Rights of Kings sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church guaranteed monarchical absolutism i.e. monarchs wielding power as they pleased. Not without influences from the rest of the world, the Age of Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries put a stop to monarchical absolutism, ‘severing’ ties between state power and religion- ushering state supremacy, republicanism, secularism and humanism in Europe.
The case of Nigeria in the modern world is different; neither has religion been severed from state power nor has it bound politics for the greater good. The fact that the country is multi-religious makes the race for state power among religious groups inevitable.
To then say religion doesn’t matter in Nigerian polity is to belittle the socio-political dynamics religion has layered in the making of Nigeria, especially Islam and Christianity. Both have made the strongest mark on the country’s demography since their spread in the 1800s, reducing indigenous spiritual systems to the periphery. Recognizing the intersection of these two world religions -Islam and Christianity- and the local complexities that played out in the making of Nigeria as a modern state, Olufemi Vaughan in ‘Religion and the Making of Nigeria’ has argued that
Nigeria’s varied communities’ encounters with these world religious movements have been pivotal to creating tapestries that reflect dialectical tensions between tradition and modernity, local and global, national and transnational, since the turbulent nineteenth century [.] At various stages of Nigeria’s political history, these complicated religious forces have evolved in multilayered local, national, and transnational contexts. Their dynamic manifestations have influenced power configurations in a colonial context, shaped power relations during decolonization, helped mold Nigeria’s problematic postcolonial nationstate, and responded to the forces of globalism at the turn of the twenty-first century.
So, Nigeria’s case is such that religion is at the centrepiece of its complex socio-political structures.
Speaking extensively on the relationship between religion and politics in Nigeria, Tunde Odunlade began with what he understood to be ‘religion’ and ‘politics’. He says
Religion to me should be a personal way of seeking the Supreme Being, the Creator, the Almighty God. It’s a way by which you relate to your inner being, with your creator. That’s what religion is to me while politics is the way by which people are ruled, by which some decisions that people make -best known to them- are applicable to other individuals, their people.
He continues,
But, to try to see if there is any connection between religion and politics. There’s no straight answer to that. Religion can help politics, politics can help religion. Religion can help politics if religion were to be playing the role it is supposed to play which is a way in which people are taught, or people’s minds are put to understanding that you didn’t just come to this world. There is something that goes beyond you as an individual which is where godliness comes. So, religion becomes a medium through which you seek spirituality and which you can use prophetically to help politics. He mentioned the likes of Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, Dr Martin Luther King, Dr Ralph Abernathy, Dr Andrew Young, and Representative John Lewis who used religion to seek freedom for their people. They figured out a way of using religion to penetrate what seems to be politically incorrect in their society and religion helped them to achieve that. So, Religion can be a tool to make a society godlier, friendlier, more of a place to fellowship; more of a place to see themselves in God and God see them as their own people.
After saying the above, he asked if religion was playing the same role exemplified by the iconic individuals he mentioned.
With a stern look on his face, Odunlade voiced his distaste against the use of religion in Nigeria in determining who will rule, who will not rule, who to vote for, and who to not vote for. He repeatedly emphasized the complementarity of religion and politics and how both could help each other. He then likened both to two parallel lines that must not clash. Asked what he would say to those who wish to see a clash, he says
Those are people I call aríjẹníbimọ̀dàrú- those who get their booty from confusion [.] The moment you start telling me that your religion is better than mine, the moment you start telling me that if I don’t belong as member of your religious sect that I am nobody, that’s terrorism. Yorubas say àgbàlá tó gbin ògùn ìkà, ọmọ rẹ̀ ń bọ̀wá wujẹ- an elderly who plants a seed of sorrow, his or her children or grandchildren are coming to reap it in multi-fold. Look at what has been going on where they’ve allowed religiosity to get in their politics; are they not their own people killing their people? If we allow religion and politics to clash, Everybody will lose at the end of the day” he retorted passionately.
The complexities of the Nigerian state allow for religion to feature in its polity. The role religion would play again in the 2023 elections cannot be overemphasized. And as Odunlade warned, a clash between religion and politics would be devastating for the country.
BALANCE OF IDENTITY IN CANDIDACY AND PARTY TICKETING
Despite several religions providing the backdrop to the making of Nigeria and its spinning polity, APC fielded a same-religion presidential ticket for the 2023 General Elections in June last year. Debates rose in various quarters on the ruling party’s Muslim-Muslim ticket, a sacrilege some argued. Interestingly, this is not the first time such a ticket would surface; the APC’s same-religion presidential ticket is second in line to the 1993 Abiola-Kingibe’s same-religion presidential ticket. Also, nowhere is it written in the Nigerian constitution that a religion-balanced ticket should take preeminence. Presumably, the dominance of Christianity and Islam in Nigeria made equal identity representation at the federal executive arm of government imperative while at the state and the local level religious parity of executives or absence of it depended on the peculiarities of regions and locales.
To understand how deeply religious identity constructs run and why unwritten ticketing law has held sway in Nigeria’s polity for long, it’s more important to examine the identity formations of past winning parties’ presidential candidates.
From 1999-2007, we saw the fielding of Southern/Yoruba/Christian in Olusegun Obasanjo and Northern/Fulani/Muslim in Atiku Abubakar as presidential and vice presidential candidates respectively under the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). For another eight years (2007-2015) which PDP ruled, the chain of identity formation of the president and the vice president only swapped positions, replacing the then-outgoing vice president, Atiku Abubakar, with Ijaw candidacy in the person of Goodluck Jonathan i.e. Northern/Fulani/Muslim in Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Southern/Ijaw/Christian in Goodluck Jonathan. The demise of Umaru Musa Yar’adua in 2010 caused a repositioning of the chain of identity i.e. Southern/Ijaw/Christian as president and Northern/Fulani/Muslim as vice president.
It must be stated that the chain of identity formation of presidential and vice presidential candidates has been in this order: region/ethnicity/religion. On region, candidates have been paired northerly-southerly or southerly-northerly. On ethnic identity, the ethnicity card has so far been cast on Yoruba/Fulani/Ijaw since 1999. The Igbo, a majority ethnic group who beat Ijaw and Fulani in numerous numbers has not been opportune to produce president and vice president since 1999. Hausas who outnumber Fulanis have not even had a shot at the highest office in the country since 1960 except at the last stages of the military era, in person of Abdulsalami Abubakar.
On religion, candidates whose parties won the presidential polls had been fielded on Christian-Muslim tickets or vice versa. The First and Second Republics even blazed a trail in religion-balance ticketing. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Tafawa Balewa were Christian and Muslim, President and Prime Minister respectively between 1960 and 1966, while Shehu Shagari and Alex Ekwueme were fielded on a Muslim-Christian ticket under the National Party of Nigeria in 1979. Though the aborted (1993) Third Republic nearly saw the swearing-in of a Muslim-Muslim ticket presidency, it owed its peculiarity to the mounting distaste of military rule which called to bear a united southern democratic front rather than a separate religious front for a religion-balanced ticket.
Bringing it to the current dispensation in Nigeria, Southern/Yoruba/Muslim-Northern/Fulani-Kanuri/Muslim is the chain of identity formations of the presidential and vice presidential candidates of APC for the 2023 election. The similarity in religion is where APC breaks away from the ticketing norm while other political parties who couldn’t take the risk have played by the norm. In essence, the ruling party played foul by this; it has dug its pit because to have supported a same-religion presidential ticket was to have left no choice for many other religious faithfuls than to look elsewhere for a religion-balanced ticket. Labour Party provided it early enough and it has been gaining steam under Obi-Datti candidacy ever since.
Bringing the two towers in their respective craft to discourse again. Asked what they thought about APC’s same-religion presidential ticket; Bolanle Awe and Tunde Odunlade differed slightly in their opinions. “That party? I would not worry about it. People tend to think religion rules their everyday lives. The country is not made up of segregated communities. There cannot be a separate Muslim community and a separate Christian community” she says. Though it is understandable, she continues, “If your candidates keep preaching Islam says this, Islam says that, and you a Muslim choose to vote on the basis of that, but if you look at his past and find that he’s been stealing, you should be able to say I would still not vote for you.”
Speaking at length on this, Tunde Odunlade says
Muslim-Muslim ticket, Christian-Christian ticket, Christian-Muslim ticket. Talk about the merit of each one, of the candidate involved, are they really out there to get things done? Is he really out there to give service? Should I because he’s a Christian, and he has something to offer, I would then say No? Or should I say because he’s a Muslim and he has something to offer and because he’s a Muslim I would say No? [.] See, when it takes religion to determine who will rule, who will not rule, then something is wrong. Those who are against APC’s Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket may have their reasons. It does not matter to me Muslim or Christian, Christian-Christian, Muslim-Muslim, Muslim-Christian, Christian-Muslim. What matters is what merit do they have? What love of the country do they have at heart? What service are they going to give? What government are they going to form that will move the country forward?
He adds, “All elections should be meritorious. So when it comes to don’t vote for him because he’s a Christian, or don’t vote for him because he’s a Muslim. That’s when I run away. To me, it’s absolute nonsense.” He queried how Nigerians would react if Oníṣẹ̀ṣe (Traditionalists) had come to the open to insist on Christian-Oníṣẹ̀ṣe ticket or Muslim-Oníṣẹ̀ṣe ticket. “If Ari Krishna stood up, or Guru Maharaji stood up, are we going to say they are not part of Nigeria too? Can you see why religion should not be an issue at all?” he asks.
Asked what he thought about the relationship between ethnicity and politics too, he begins
It is in Nigeria and some other African countries I see this. I don’t buy into it, but when one particular ethnicity sees itself as Know-it-All, the one who says I know better than you, you should keep quiet, you should keep shut, you should not try to become a leader of this country. Then that is when issues come to play. If Igbo man would be the one who all of us deem fit to deliver, so be it. Even if it were a Hausa man, even among ‘minority’ groups [.] if a leader comes from there, so be it.
Similarly, drawing from his experience abroad, he narrated an incident that took place in 1993 when he went to dinner with many of his artist friends after an exhibition, how an artist fell off her chair laughing, rolling on the floor when he took time to narrate to them, following the news of an election annulment, the many ethnic groups in Nigeria and history of how the country arrived at where it was.
She was overwhelmed and flabbergasted, and said that you mean that there are still some people in this world who are still arguing about who to rule them, why a particular ethnic group should be the one? Why other ethnic groups cannot be the one? You mean there are still people who are arguing this? When we spend tax-payer’s money here on deliberations in Canada’s House of Parliament whether or not the street-signs should be written in both English and French. The House of Parliament was at that time arguing about that. See how far they have gone. See how advanced the country had become. To now put ethnicity and politics side by side, means we are circling within the fold of our palm.
Odunlade would like to see a politics “whereby it may not matter where you are coming from: Urhobo, Edo etc. Even if an Edo man was president last term and an Urhobo man stood up and we all see that that Urhobo man would do just as good if not better than the Edo man. Let that be. I would like for it to happen to this country.” Typically, Odunlade’s wish is the wish of several progressive Nigerians, but, it is farther from realities on the ground.
Bolanle Awe asserted without much pause that there was no doubt that ethnicity was in our politics. “It’s true because some people in choosing leaders choose according to where he comes from. People are happy when one of theirs is in power so that development could spur in their ethnic enclaves,” she says. She stressed ‘ethnic balancing’ to be valuable for governance in Nigeria.
Perhaps something is wrong with Nigeria, perhaps not. Odunlade’s friend can afford to mock the role of ethnicity in Nigeria’s polity, but the country’s realities are so complex such that it cannot aspire to a ‘Western ideal’ yet at the expense of its ‘delicate balance’.
AN EXPENSIVE GAMBLE
PDP and Labour Party (LP) followed the unwritten ticketing law. In the run-up to the 2023 elections, PDP fielded Northern/Fulani/Muslim in Atiku Abubakar and Southern/Igbo/Christian in Ifeanyi Okowa, while LP put forward Southern/Igbo/Christian in Peter Obi and Northern/Fulani/Muslim in Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed as presidential and vice presidential candidates respectively. Was APC blind to this ticketing norm? During the 2015 and 2019 presidential elections, APC won on Northern/Fulani/Muslim-Southern/Yoruba/Christian ticket. One would ask, what changed this time around? Could it be that now is when religion should not matter?
If anything, APC erred by fielding a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the 2023 presidential election. The ticket was dead at incubation and would only fly if other religious identities relinquished their voting blocs. This potential loss of significant vote banks alone should have deterred APC from fielding a same-religion ticket. In practical terms, many southern areas dominated by the Christian majority would not vote for APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket. The same loss would be borne in many locales with a Muslim majority had APC chosen a Christian-Christian ticket instead. Other 'minority' religious groups would not be missing in action too; they would tilt towards any party that presents some fairness in its ticket despite their lack of representation in majority identity politics.
For APC to win would mean that all other religious identities including Christians stoop. That is a great impossibility because what is glaringly at stake for them is power, and power, in common sense, is the ability to make or unmake, to raise or put below, to build or destroy, to empower or disempower, and so on. This is what APC fails to see. Pleading with the Christian majority and other religious ‘minorities’ to overlook the same-religion ticket is therefore asking them to disempower themselves from national identity politics, or rather commit electoral suicide when religion-balanced ticket had been the norm as far back as 1960.
Tinubu relating the current state of Nigeria and his choice of a same-religion ticket to the June 1993 elections is absurd. Can Nigeria of 1993 be compared to Nigeria of 2007? Can Nigeria of 2022 be compared to Nigeria of 2015? Perhaps Tinubu is oblivious to Nigeria’s recent plunge into mass poverty and misery in the last eight years.
The standard of living and cost of living has grown more tortuous and disappointing during Buhari’s administration. Some may argue that personality change equals policy change. This is dubious. It’s widely speculated that Tinubu, seeking to appease Buhari, chose Shettima as his running mate. His choosing of Shettima, an individual with allegations of support for Boko Haram (a terrorist organization), only suggests a continuity of misery and ineptitude. Moreover, hardly is there any positive pointer to suggest to us the plans a potential ‘E Mi Lokan’ administration would embark if it took over from Buhari’s ‘Next-Level’ administration.
The presidential office is overly powerful. The fact that whoever assumes presidential office can choose not to listen to anybody is where the fear is among many political heavyweights who wish to retain relevance and power under another APC national government. Buhari proved this traditional fear beyond doubt when he chose not to listen to Tinubu after assuming presidential office. After assuming presidential office in 2011, even Jonathan refused to be a stooge to Obasanjo. We should expect the same from Tinubu if he stays long in the presidential seat.
Tinubu’s choice of a Muslim as his vice set him up for national disappointment. Even much disappointment would be borne by his party colleagues who looked on as he made this expensive decision. Buhari whose incumbency, and being primus inter pares of the ruling party, can rectify this by demanding a redress to APC’s same-religion presidential ticket.
Rather disappointing it is that the ruling party’s pursuit of a same-religion presidential ticket amidst the religion-balanced presidential tickets of other political parties taints the 2023 presidential election as a religious competition for national political power, posturing Islam and Muslims as power usurpers who wish to force their hegemony on other religious groups who constitute majority and minority varyingly.
Therefore, to prevent religious face-off, Buhari should call for a bipartisan convention as quickly as possible. Even more, if not done sooner, there could be a run-off election if voters vote by their religious creed for one of theirs. To stall the potentiality of whipping up jihad and crusade electorally, clerics should condemn these tendencies among their faithfuls, admonishing them to focus on the merit of candidates instead. More so, should vote reserves along ethnic and religious lines be split into catchment blocs for PDP, APC and LP among others, a coalition government could be the result. To avoid such situations in an unstable polity as Nigeria in the twenty-first century, one of the fronting political parties should be voted for heavily. So far, the Labour Party, sensitive to the current realities of Nigeria, was the first amongst others to field a religion-balanced presidential ticket. Besides, its flagbearer, Obi, ticks all the boxes on merit and competence; plus, the Igbo candidacy winning the 2023 presidential election would be history in the making in this Fourth Republic. What could be more, the deciding voting bloc is the youth population, as a report has it that 84 per cent of the new voters were young people. This is a welcome development.
In conclusion, by voting Obi-Datti into the presidential office, Nigerians, while expecting manifesto fulfilment, must keep in mind that no miracle would upturn the country’s economic woes, nor would a magic wand raise its poor standing in the comity of nations. The ingenuity, and transparency of governance at the federal, state and local levels would make joint efforts towards a ‘miracle’ possible. Nigerians must hold any winning party accountable to its promises. Civil society and media organizations should take the chance now to build up power on neutral grounds to challenge any ruling party that errs from its manifesto and its constitutional responsibility. And because the ruling party’s same-religion presidential ticket portends a likely implosion for the country, Nigerians should look elsewhere for a religion-balanced ticket.
This essay was written in October 2022. Minor changes were made afterwards.