Since Islam and Christianity began to coexist in Nigeria, at no time has the Christian faith been more gravely assaulted than during the 2023 election year. It was the year Christianity was shoved aside and rudely supplanted with Islam.
That was the year the northern cabal had the temerity to insist on Muslim-Muslim ticket as a condition for power shift to the south.
It should be noted that the idea of a Muslim-Muslim ticket did not come from the blues. It was nurtured by perverse minds whom the nepotistic rule of Muhammadu Buhari had emboldened. Under Buhari, the Muslim north had an unfair advantage over the Christian south. With the imminent end of the Buhari misrule, those who were benefiting unduly from it were ill at ease with what was about to happen. Power was about to leave the hands of the religious bigots who ruled and reigned under Buhari. To ensure therefore that power shift to the south will be on their own terms, the idea of a Muslim-Muslim ticket became a condition precedent.
Christianity took the downward slope in Nigeria when its faithful failed to rise against the deliberate and calculated attempt to undermine their faith through Tinubu’s Muslim-Muslim ticket. Next time around, those behind the scheme will do something more daring.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a southern Muslim who wanted power at all cost, would not be bothered about the demand. He would do the demand of the cabal if that would guarantee him the presidential seat. But then, the demand had far-reaching implications. Northern Christians were scandalized by it all. If the idea succeeded, it would mean that they are ruled out in the power configuration of Nigeria under a democratic setting. When it is the turn of the north to produce the president, Muslims of the region take an upper hand. When a southerner is to choose a presidential running mate, the northern Christian is also not factored into the equation. This state of affairs was what the likes of Babachir Lawal, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, found unacceptable. Even though the negative elements succeeded in installing Tinubu, Babachir Lawal has not buckled. He has remained on the side of principle.
In the Christian south, the idea of a Muslim-Muslim ticket did not just sound strange, it was an affront. The thought of it was satanic. It could only be hatched by nation-wreckers. Based on the strangeness of the idea, a debate ensued. Should a political party that wants to win an election try its hands on this provocation? After months of heightened tension, Tinubu and his promoters called the bluff of the naysayers. They dared Christianity and went ahead with the provocative arrangement. This, in a way, may have exacerbated the stiff competition that seems to exist between Islam and Christianity in Nigeria.
Even though Muslims from northern Nigeria have had more opportunity to preside over the affairs of the country, Christianity has refused to be relegated to the background. The uproar over Nigeria’s surreptitious attempt to join the league of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in 1986 is a case in point. The Ibrahim Babangida regime was, at that time , flirting with the organization. It faced serious objections at home. Government claimed Nigeria was there on observer status. Those who pushed for Nigeria’s membership of OIC then claimed that Nigeria could become a member since about 50 percent of the country’s population is said to be Muslims with Christians accounting for about 40- 45 percent. This statistics has been nothing more than a mere conjecture since Nigeria’s population censuses have deliberately been excluding every questionnaire on religion and ethnicity. But the point to note here is that no administration in Nigeria has ever stepped forward to make a categorical statement on Nigeria’s membership of OIC because of its sensitive nature. Christian-Muslim relationship has been a polar divide that is handled with caution. However, this caution was thrown to the dogs in 2023 when Tinubu, out of desperation, fell for the plot by northern Muslims who aim at having Islam ride roughshod over Christianity.
The election has since held and Tinubu lost roundly in the christian south. But the reason for his loss was hardly as a result of his choice of his fellow Muslim as a running mate. It was because he did not have the right appeal to command the attention of most southern voters. But the real issue for consideration here is that there was no Christian fury when promoters of Islam in Nigeria bit more than they could ordinarily have chewed. Christian response to the affront was lame. Christians could not express or display the level of outrage that the situation required. This may have emboldened those behind the destabilizing plot to push ahead with it.
The situation was not helped by Christian leaders. Many argue that they failed their religion at a very momentous historical juncture. Apart from the Catholic Bishops Conference which vehemently rejected the ugly order and preached against it, most Christian leaders were either complacent or dubious in their positions. In fact, the likes of Pastor William Folorunsho Kumuyi, General superintendent of the Deeper Life Christian Ministry, turned a blind eye to the assault on Christianity. He said in August when the Supreme Court was still sitting on the litigations brought against Tinubu’s victory that God will use Tinubu to build Nigeria . He told Nigerians to expect positive outcomes from the administration. At 82, you can hardly say whether Kumuyi was driven by age or ethnicity. But what is noteworthy here is that a Christian leader of his standing lent his support to a negative force that undermined his religion.
Pastor Enoch Adeboye, General overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, was also as complicit as Kumuyi in this matter. He was never known to have spoken against the arrangement that undermined his religion. What he did instead was to say that Tinubu will fix Nigeria with God’s help. He urged Nigerians to pray for the new administration.
But the big issue here is: what would have been the case if someone came up with the idea of a Christian-Christian ticket? I dare say that that would have sounded revolting to the Nigerian Muslim. The mere suggestion of it would have sparked riots in parts of northern Nigeria. The conflagration would have been serious enough to scuttle the transition process. That is what happens when those who are fanatical about their faith are faced with an existential threat.
No matter how we look at it, Christianity took the downward slope in Nigeria when its faithful failed to rise against the deliberate and calculated attempt to undermine their faith through Tinubu’s Muslim-Muslim ticket. Tinubu’s same faith ticket was an experiment, but it succeeded. Next time around, those behind the scheme will do something more daring.
