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Looking Ahead In Time By Lawal Ogienagbon

It was a tricky issue which required all his skills to tackle. It took him long days and nights to arrive at a final decision. Even at that, the noise over his pick is still deafening as I write this four days after he made his choice. Ordinarily, it should not be a matter over which to break bones.

 

But, considering the level to which we have sunk as a nation, it has become one. Picking a running mate for a presidential candidate, whether a Muslim or a Christian, should be a walk in the park. Just as it used to be in the past. Painfully, it is no longer so. What should be an easy and simple task has been made hard and complex.

 

In the past, even before a candidate emerges, he already knows who his running mate is, or a faint idea of who that person will be. From months of interaction and working together, the candidate would have formed opinion about the person and made up his mind about him. As soon as he becomes the candidate, he wastes no time in naming his running mate.

 

That was the era of a political culture under which competence, capability, conviction and courage held sway. It was when politics was played without recourse to region and religion. The twin issues of ethnicity and faith were not allowed to dominate the political space as they now do. Our faith and ethnic nationality are now used as bargaining chips for power.

 

Clergymen and monarchs have turned their places of worship and palaces into mini party headquarters where serious political decisions are taking. Key political players court them because of their new found power of galvanising support for the parties they favour. It is a matter of ‘you scratch my back, I scratch your back’.

 

Suddenly, a country where merit, competence and ability were celebrated became one where the language you speak and the faith you profess were all you needed to become somebody. It is not the fault of the clergy and the monarchy, but a collective fault. When things started degenerating, we did nothing to stem the slide at all levels and now we are at the mercy of religious bigots.

 

Indeed, religion was never an issue in this country. Perhaps, with the exception of those early days when the missionaries tried to divide us by setting up schools mainly for people of their own faith and converting others, even against their own will, before admitting them. Since those days, we have overcome the religion challenge until the Islamic sect, better known as Boko Haram, burst on the scene. Though Boko Haram is a recent thing, the damage it has done to our psyche is unquantifiable.

 

Our recourse to religion politics did not start with Boko Haram, though. It started in 1993 when Boko Haram was not in existence. Christendom rose against the Muslim-Muslim ticket of M.K.O Abiola and Babagana Kingibe, describing it as not sellable. The military, an apolitical institution known to be blind to issues of region and religion worldwide, led us down the slippery path when it opposed that Muslim-Muslim ticket, if we are to believe former military leader Ibrahim Babangida.

 

Almost 30 years after, Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima are reenacting the Muslim-Muslim ticket on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the stiff objection of again, Christendom and their Muslim collaborators. Their argument is that in a country of over 200 million people, the party should have found a Christian to be Tinubu’s running mate. It is Tinubu’s prerogative to choose whoever he prefers as his running mate.

He cannot be dictated to on that. But in taking his decision, he must consider many factors, one of which I concede, is religion. But the most important factors are the ability and electoral value of his running mate, and not where he comes from or the faith he professes. Tinubu is in the race to win and to ensure his victory, he has to go for a running mate that will boost his chances at the poll. He cannot opt for a liability as this column wrote on June 16.

 

Political calculation informed Tinubu’s choice and not what some perceive as disdain for the Christian faith. After all, if he is elected, he will be the president of all and not of one faith or the other. Many condemning his choice would have taken similar action if they were in his shoes. How can a man who is married to a devout Christian and a Pastor to boot be intolerant of other religions?

 

Having made his choice, Tinubu has a lot of work to do to pacify those hurt. There is still time for him to do so before the election and explain that his choice was not a slight on Christians and assure them of a huge role in his administration if elected. This is a game of give and take and not a matter of life and death.

 

But at the end of the day, Tinubu may yet be credited for looking ahead in time with this Muslim-Muslim ticket.

 

 

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