Nigeria’s Presidential
Election: The Christian-Muslim Divide
Muhammad Rislan
risland6@gmail.com
The above was the
title of an article written by Robert Ruby and Timothy Samuel Shah for the Pew
Research Centre’s Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life on March 21,
2007. The content of the article still reverberates to date. Barely anything
has changed. Never has a campaign exposed our fragility like the just concluded
presidential campaign, which constantly revolves not around ideologies but the
religious affiliations of the front-line contenders. This serves as a reminder
of the sharp Christian-Muslim divide in Africa’s most populous country. The
fact that we have a largely Christian south and predominately Muslim north does
not change or help the challenges the average Nigerian faces.
Here's why the warped
logic of voting the President from your religious bloc seemed confusing to me:
The recent ruling by the Apex Court overturning the unilateral decision of one
man’s effort to plunge our economy down a rabbit hole upholds the federalism of
our system. Here’s a point in the ruling:
“In issuing the policy, the president is obliged to carry the
national council of states along”.
Clearly, nothing
happens in our national affairs without the input of the national council. Who
are the members of the national council? The Council of State consists of the
following persons: the President, who is the Chairman; the Vice-President, who
is the Deputy Chairman; all former Presidents of the Federation and all former
Heads of the Government of the Federation; all former Chief Justices of
Nigeria; the President of the Senate; the Speaker of the House of
Representatives; all the Governors of the states of the Federation, and the
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation. Looking at the
set-up, clearly fighting to install one man at the top at the expense of
national unity, begs one to ask if we really ever care about the country. When
a Christian is the President, all decisions are agreed upon by Muslim members.
So also, when a Muslim is a president.
Here's another
argument; when Goodluck Jonathan was the president, his service chiefs were
mostly Christians, and Muslims in the Northeast were killed with wanton
disregard. We all came out and pointed out not the inefficiencies of the
service chiefs but their religions. Alas, when the GEJ government was out of
power, we realized that one of our own, a Muslim was responsible for handling
finances that could significantly change the trajectory of our war against the
insurgents. However, he was busy sharing the largesse, and the people from the
North, as the South, were equal opportunists and were busy collecting without
asking questions. Not just the politicians, but ‘some’ even collected to pray
for peace. Here’s another twist; when Buhari came to power, he installed
Muslims as service chiefs, and the insurgents were even emboldened in their
attack on the North. We cried and called for their sack; they were eventually
sacked and rewarded, but our lot hasn’t changed.
When GEJ was in power,
he had an opportunity to force the oil multinationals to clean up Ogoni land
and other polluted sites. Did he? Instead, he presided over a government that
essentially gave way to the squandering of our sovereign fund, which was
initially implemented to help us during rainy days. But did he do it alone, or
was he coerced by Christian and Muslim actors in the council of states? Ask
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala GCON, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization.
Our dear old Obasanjo,
aka OBJ, was a born-again Christian prior to becoming Nigeria’s president.
Under his watch, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation
was killed in cold blood, and nothing was done about it? Many similar
mysterious deaths occurred under his watch. The Human Rights Violations
Investigation Commission of Nigeria, also known as the Oputa Panel, concluded
that three of Nigeria's former military rulers were personally liable for
extrajudicial killings perpetrated while they were in power. None of them was
probed. Under his watch, $16b power project expenditure could not be accounted
for. Yet, he had the guts to publish during the collation of presidential
election results attacking the electoral body.
The propensity to
advocate for violence in politics has been growing since the return to
democracy in Nigeria. Even in supposedly democratic nations, politics, and the
political process can be fatal. In the just concluded presidential ad house of
assembly elections, a federal legislature was allegedly responsible for the
maiming, killing, and burning alive of the opposition members in his
constituency. He is currently remanded in jail, awaiting his day in court. As
much as possible, religious clerics should avoid endorsing any politician,
especially since they are habitual liars. You can’t tell me that the major
contenders for the number one seat in the nation who were overwhelmingly
endorsed by some religious clerics are saints!! No, they aren’t, and therefore
we should be allowed to make decisions on who is less evil than his opponents.
For the past eight
years, our economic fortunes have been dwindling in the largely majority Muslim
North. It didn’t start under the watch of GMB, but it escalated under his
watch. Sadly, the Minister of Works & Housing; the Customs boss; the
finance minister; the Account General of the Federation; the IGP, and the
military chiefs are all Muslims but that didn’t stop our poverty and unemployment
level to keep increasing at an alarming rate. The skill sets of our youths in
the North compared to the South are alarmingly widening, with their Southern
counterparts moving rapidly toward digital nomadism. This means they can work
remotely from anywhere in the world with uncanny efficiency, giving them more
time to spend on leisure and self-creativity. The trajectory is different, and
we need to address that. As a region, our religion is supreme, and it does not
stop us from being better members of society, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami can be a case
study. He has excelled in his field and those in the Tech world are all too
familiar with him.
The data is there, but
it hasn’t been analyzed and interpreted, which is why I fault the decision of
our religious clerics to interfere in politics from the lenses of religion. If
competence is there, we should go for it. We need jobs, skills, and massive
infrastructural investments in our regions to develop. More importantly, we
must be responsible if we want a better life. We will welcome the removal of
fuel subsidies and investment in education. Furthermore, we will welcome a
taxation system where the funds work for us not against us. Where the funds
aren’t abused but holders of our treasury but used to develop us. If roads are
to be constructed, toll gates should be put in place, and money generated used
to manage the roads. If I don’t use the road, there is no need to levy tax on
me via stamp duty. That is unjust. If I use public transport, I should pay. If
I abuse the public trust, I should be made to pay commensurate to the abuse.
Nothing more, nothing less. That is justice. Any God will support a just
society.
The more we clamor for one of our own to be put in a position despite his incompetence, the more we sacrifice our children's and grandchildren's futures. We are where we are not because of our sins but because ours is not a just society. Let us try putting competence in front and see if our fortunes will not change.
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