By: Reno Omokri
As we approach the 2027 Presidential election, the issue of religion in Nigeria is springing up, with people trying to use the same faith ticket that President Bola Tinubu ran on to torpedo his reelection bid by calling for a balanced ticket.
Unsurprisingly, manipulative people, like Nasir el-Rufai, the scorned former Governor of Kaduna, who had allowed the bitterness of losing out on a ministerial position to poison his mind, were pushing this script either directly or through surrogates.
But let us examine the postulation factually. In a Muslim-majority country like Nigeria, there is nothing wrong with having a Muslim-Muslim ticket for eight years. This was my position even before President Tinubu was elected. Please fact-check me. I said then that we should focus on a candidate’s qualifications.
We should be more concerned with competency and ethnic balance than with religious balance. Especially as our major religions in Nigeria are imported, while our ethnicities are God-given.
And people who profess Christianity as a religion have got to look back to history and not allow el-Rufai and his newfound partners in political desperation to deceive them.
Muslims have shown more political tolerance for Christians in Nigeria than vice versa. Oh, you doubt me?
For nine solid years, from Monday, August 1, 1966, to Tuesday, July 29, 1975, Nigeria was ruled by the duo of General Yakubu Gowon, a Christian belonging to the Anglican denomination from the Ngas ethnicity of Plateau State, who was Head of State, and Vice Admiral Akinwale Wey, a Yoruba Christian of the Methodist denomination from Lagos State.
Nine good years!
And this occurred in a Muslim-majority country. Yet, there were no protests by the Muslim Ummah.
Now, for those who would say that Nigeria is not a Muslim majority country and that we are half Muslim and Christian, as an Orthodox Christian myself, I would say, wake up and smell the coffee!
In 2023, we had our most religiously charged election ever because of the hullabaloo occasioned by the protests against the APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket.
This led to a situation where Peter Obi was ferried from church to church by political parties like Paul Enenche, preaching his ‘Church take back your country’ gospel publicly and simultaneously proselytising his ‘religious war’ against the Muslim Ummah secretly with selected clerics.
Peter Obi was the only Christian Presidential candidate from a major political party.
He ran against three powerful Muslim candidates, including Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Waziri Atiku Abubakar, and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who were all stronger than him politically.
This meant that while Peter Obi received the bloc Christian vote, the Muslim Ummah’s votes were divided three ways.
Yet, a Muslim, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, won the election with 37.62% of the total votes cast, 8,794,726, while another Muslim, Waziri Atiku Abubakar, polled 29.88% of the votes cast, 6,984,520.
Peter Obi, the Christian candidate, received 26.10% of the total votes cast, with 6,101,533, whereas Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso secured 6.40% of the total votes cast, with 1,496,687.
To cut a long story short, in an election that was sadly turned into a referendum on religion by Peter Obi, the church-to-church jumper, Muslims were able to secure 73.9% of the total votes cast with 17,275,933 votes, while the only major Christian candidate secured 26.10% of the votes with 6,101,533.
So, if you are still emotional rather than factual about Nigeria’s population and are clinging to the old assumption that Nigeria is a 50/50 IslamoChristian nation, then explain to me why, even though no Muslim candidate campaigned even once in a mosque, while Peter Obi consistently politicked in churches, a divided Muslim Ummah generated 17,275,933 votes, while a united Body of Christ could only counter with one-third of that totalling 6,101,533?
The Muslim-Muslim ticket is not an albatross for President Tinubu’s reelection bid. The President will run on his record.
Reno Omokri
