When the presidential flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, swam against the tide and nominated the former Governor of Borno state, Sen. Kashim Shettima, as his running mate after wide consultations, he must have anticipated that there would be an avalanche of reactions for and against his choice.
However, it should be noted that this is not the first time that such a decision has been taken in Nigeria by political parties. The present scenario is like a playback of the combination of Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, a Yoruba Muslim from the South and Babagana Kingibe, a Kanuri Muslim from the North, in the 1993 presidential poll that the military junta annulled.
The other question that comes to mind is why those who are challenging the same faith ticket are not also questioning the decision of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to pick its presidential candidate from the North. By the end of Buhari’s regime, the region would have held the office for eight consecutive years. And should the party succeed in 2023, the Presidency would have remained in the North for 16 years. This situation is at variance with the principles of equity, justice and fair play… one section of the country cannot remain in power for that length of time at the expense of the others.
The other issue is why are people not directing their minds to a situation where a highly qualified presidential flag bearer from a majority tribe in the South in the person of Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu picked a well-qualified running mate from a minority tribe in the North in the person of Sen. Kashim Shettima to balance the ticket?
The bigger picture that the decision makers in the ruling party are looking at is winning the election and the same faith ticket is a means of achieving that. Any other considerations have to take the backstage.
The religious injunction that says “seek ye first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness and all other things shall be added unto thee” is apt here. In other words, the party has to first win the election before it can tackle all the national issues in their manifesto. In the words of Karl Marx, “The end justifies the means.”
Those whose stock-in-trade is to bellow religious sentiments to prevent the country from making progress in the 21st Century are doing a great disservice to the nation. It must also be pointed out that no matter how many times we shout “hallelujah” and “Allahu’akbar” in our worship places, those praises alone can neither mend a broken pipe nor bring food to our tables without commensurate hard work and doing the needful. The saying that “Heaven helps those who help themselves” is noteworthy here. So is the scriptural injunction that faith without works is dead. The obvious message that the Tinubu Presidency seeks to send to all Nigerians is that a good government must first be in place and then we can expect God to give the leaders the wisdom to run our affairs with His fear in their hearts.
It is even unimaginable for any sensible Nigerian to think that any government or a group of powerful individuals would contemplate “Islamising or Christianising” the country as being peddled in some quarters. It is an unnecessary apprehension driven by mutual distrust. This bugaboo has haunted Nigerians for far too long. And it’s high time we laid it to rest once and for all. It has never happened in the history of Nigeria and it will never happen.
Perhaps unknown to many Nigerians, the APC Presidential running mate, Sen. Kashim Shettima, has earned his current position because the good deeds he has dispensed to the Christians in his state are far greater than what other governments from Christian-dominated states have done for their people. His ascension to power as the governor of Borno state was an act of providence because the first flag bearer of the party died, making it possible for him to clinch the ticket in the second primaries. God had a purpose for him.
His relationship with the Christians in a Muslim-dominated state is there for all to see. During his eight years as governor of the state, Shettima, though left-handed, was even-handed in the way and manner he related to his subjects, irrespective of their religious persuasions.
In a Muslim-dominated state, he sponsored scores of Christians to Jerusalem on holy pilgrimage. Some of the other things he did for the Christians in the state included the rebuilding of churches destroyed by Boko Haram, rehabilitation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and provision of all the necessities of life including adequate feeding of those displaced persons.
Kashim Shettima has distinguished himself in all spheres of human endeavour. He was a banker, an academic, a technocrat and a master key of sort who served as a commissioner in five different ministries, finance inclusive, and a successful businessman before venturing into politics. This is not to suggest, however, that there are no other people of other faith who might be as qualified as he is to merit the coveted position he has been nominated for.
In a secular country like Nigeria, religion should be relegated to the background when national issues are being discussed. The late anti-apartheid icon and South African President, Nelson Mandela, in spite of his affinity with Archbishop Desmond tutu, was never seen in any church in his lifetime. He was not pinned down to any religious sect. That did not take anything from him as a good man. There are many leaders out there who use churchmanship or mosquemanship as a camouflage to do despicable things behind closed doors.
Oliver Cromwell who ruled England after seizing power from Charles 1 in 1653 once ordered the annihilation of over 1,000 Irish men and women, and justified his murderous action by arguing that “when I prayed to God to protect them, God did not” .
The above example goes to demonstrate beyond all reasonable doubts that religion can be exploited by selfish individuals to achieve their motives and, therefore, should not be mixed with politics.
The APC must, however, continue to do all it could to reassure all those angered by the decision to field a same faith ticket… and, indeed, all Nigerians that given the backgrounds, antecedents and pedigrees of the two candidates, the country will be in safe hands and the duo will be driven by an altruistic zeal needed to run a 21st Century Nigeria. Asiwaju is a great talent hunter, a detribalised Nigerian par excellence, who will harness the best brains for the overall development of the country, stymied by bad governance for a very long time.
Above all, we are, first and foremost, human beings and the issue of religion should be seen as a personal affair between man and his Creator. No one was born with a tag of religion dangling on their neck!
Usman Adams is a public affairs commentator.
