APC

By Muhammad Aminu 

The Kano State Chapter of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) has condemned the Kano State Government’s plan to secure a loan of N10 billion for CCTV installation in the State.

The party, in a statement signed by Kano State Chairman, Hon. Umar Doguwa described the loan as mortgaging the future of Kano children by the incumbent Governor.

The statement read: “The New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), condemned in totality, the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje’s fresh demand of N10 billion loan request from Acess Bank to install CCTV cameras in the State. 

Governor Ganduje seems to be using his seat of power to mortgage the future of the State and that of our children.”

Hon. Doguwa stated that despite the acute water shortage in Kano, the Governor chose to fund insignificant projects.

“Ignoring the fact that the State is experiencing widely increased water scarcity, the Governor chooses to borrow to fund a project as insignificant as CCTV installation.

“The NNPP can’t sit down to watch this clueless administration stockpiling debts in the state without a commensurate achievement on the ground,” he added.

He lamented that the administration refused to settle secondary school students’ examination fees, which led to students dropping out despite taking loans in the name of reforms in education.

“Due to the failure of Ganduje’s government to pay their Senior Secondary School examination fees, countless students have been forced to drop out of school, and others are on the verge of dropping out.

“Kano people can vividly recall that Ganduje had borrowed the sum of fifteen billion naira on education reform, but the money was diverted to something else, and today, a significant number of our students dropped out from schooling as the government cannot cater for their common interest examination and senior secondary school examination,” he said

While appealing to the State Assembly to desist from granting such approval in the future by putting Kano’s interest ahead of Governor’s desire, Doguwa warned that should NNPP win the 2023 gubernatorial election; it will not honour the agreement.

“We wish to categorically draw the attention of all commercial banks and other financial lending institutions within and outside the country to be cautious with the Ganduje’s demand for loans as the next administration will not in any way honour such reckless borrowings.”

He stated, “Our great party is urging the State House of Assembly to refrain from granting trivial demands from the Governor like these.

“We implore honourable members to put the needs of Kano’s good people ahead of the Governor’s insatiable desire to wreck the future of the State before we defeat them in the 2023 election.

“We also call on the Access Bank to resist any temptation to advance any loan to the borrowing Governor Ganduje, who is hellbent on mortgaging the state to satisfy his self ends.”

He chided Ganduje’s administration for its failure to maintain CCTV installations deployed by the Kwankwaso administration only to plan to borrow funds for the same purpose.

“With a sense of nostalgia, the general public remembered that in the past, our party’s presidential hopeful, Engr, Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, deployed CCTV in strategic locations throughout the State.

“However, the current administration, that seeks N10 billion loan to install new ones, failed to handle them, and the good people of Kano can’t trust a governor with the installation of new ones at their detriment,” he noted.

It can be recalled that The Daily Reality reported that the Kano State House of Assembly had approved a loan request of 10 billion naira for Gov Ganduje’s administration to install CCTV installation in Kano to tackle security challenges.

By Amir Abdulazeez

When President Obasanjo carelessly picked Goodluck Jonathan to serve as Umaru ‘Yaradua’s potential Vice President in 2007, little did we know that the politics of choosing running mates would later become complex and problematic. The death of Umaru, the ascension of Jonathan, the surprising emergence of Namadi Sambo and Patrick Yakowa becoming the first Christian Civilian Governor of Kaduna State would all combine to later add more relevance to the politics of running mate selection. In 2014, APC had more headaches picking a presidential running mate than the presidential candidate himself. It took them so much time and effort that one thought they would organize a new convention for that purpose.

Today, the Muslim-Muslim ticket debacle is the bane of Nigerian political discourse. While clamouring for fairness and balance, which are needed for a fragile system like Nigeria’s, we should also remember that from 1999 to date, no religion can claim any net gain from this Nigerian version of democracy. Ordinary followers of all faiths have been victims of bad governance, even pagans. We have suffered so much that if a pagan/pagan ticket will eradicate insecurity, fix the economy and bring development while being fair to all interests and affiliations, we should allow it. Therefore, the choice is between searching for solutions and satisfying sentiments; we seem to favour the latter.

A section of public commentators and spectators are already suggesting a walkover for Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 polls. That is the biggest complacency I have ever seen in contemporary Nigerian politics. How can you be facing a ruling party with almost 65% of political stakeholdership in the country and be expecting to have a walkover? Atiku is an institution, but his successes in the last two PDP primaries are more financial supremacy than political dominance. That aside, barring a Buhari-like scenario, Atiku will make a good president. He is perhaps the only fully independent candidate with a clear and accessible blueprint since 2007. In 2011, he had a better manifesto and approach than President Goodluck Jonathan; he only lost the PDP primaries to the power of incumbency. By the way, what happened to the Jonathan 2023 candidacy?

From 1992, this is Atiku’s 7^th attempt at the Presidency, with 2019 being his closest to success. Many believe 2023 is his year, and so many apparent factors call for optimism in his camp. However, two fundamental things may haunt Waziri; (in)consistency and (un)popularity. Buhari and Tinubu are successfully reaping the harvests of consistency and perseverance; they stuck to opposition politics all their lives. Atiku should’ve remained in opposition when he decamped to Action Congress in 2007 or should’ve stayed in the ruling PDP when he decamped back in 2011. Ambition had kept him running from one place to another, making him neither establishment nor anti-establishment. The second question is whether there is a single state in Nigeria in which Atiku can secure one million votes or more in 2023? I hope we all remember Dr Rabi’u Kwankwaso’s 3-K States theory?

Tinubu’s boast in Ogun State over his role in the emergence of Buhari as President needs some revisiting and clarification. To avoid doubt, Muhammadu Buhari did not lose the 2003 presidential elections; it was brutally rigged to return Obasanjo for a second term. 2003 will easily enter the list of the worst elections in modern world history. In 2007, the results of the presidential election were simply written, so we can’t even call that election not to talk of who won or lost. I have never relied on 2003 and 2007 election figures for research or serious analysis because they are primarily fabricated. The 2011 elections were relatively fair, but at least 40% of the vote was rigged, written, or inflated, especially in the South-South and South-East.

In the circumstances like these, we cannot comfortably declare Buhari a loser of all the previous elections he contested and only became a winner when he met Tinubu. Although 2015 was indeed the weakest version of political Buhari, it was confirmed that he had lost hope and that the APC merger spearheaded by Tinubu was what brought him back to life. But it is also true that so many other factors other than Tinubu contributed crucially to Buhari’s victory. One major one was the abysmal performance of Goodluck Jonathan. One, however, is that, without Tinubu’s support, it would’ve been near impossible for Buhari to emerge APC flagbearer against the financial powerhouses in Kwankwaso and Atiku.

This brings us to the argument that access to public funds is why some candidates (not aspirants) are stronger than others. Supporters of a particular presidential candidate even claimed that if their man had equal access to public funds, he would be better than certain candidates. This is laughable; a debate like this will take us nowhere. Just campaign for your candidate and persuade people to vote for him. If we are talking about the abuse of people’s trust and the utilization of our commonwealth for personal political development, none of the prominent politicians in Nigeria will come out clean. So, let us not deceive ourselves and others.

Where are our smaller political parties who had spent most of their last four years fighting INEC over deregistration? This is a reasonable amount of time they would’ve spent coming together to form a strong bloc. In case we don’t know, 74 of them were deregistered for failing to meet the requirements to continue to exist as political parties. About 10 to 15 of the currently existing will be due for deregistration by this time next year. Instead of them to consider merging to form a decent alternative, they’ll rather hang on only to be fighting a legal survival battle with INEC next year. As the strongest and largest intellectual organization in West Africa, I don’t even know why ASUU is yet to form a political party or adopt any of the smaller parties to set up a path towards satisfying their own demands all by themselves instead of waiting and hoping for a hopeless Federal Government.

Why is nobody talking about the enormous task ahead of the next president, whom credible international reports suggest will have to use 100% of his revenue in servicing (not repaying) debts by 2024? To execute projects or even pay salaries, the next government may have to borrow further. Nigeria is in trouble. We are drowning in the ocean of foreign debts. Meanwhile, we are concerned over a presidential candidate’s religion more than his ability to bring us out of this mess. Buhari has failed because Jonathan had built a solid foundation for that failure. Now he has built a worse foundation for his successor. The possibility and danger of the next president, irrespective of his affiliation and preparedness to economically be worse than Buhari, is imminent. May God help us.

All of the political dynamics of today are closely related to 1999, some a bit earlier. Suppose you have not directly experienced Nigerian political development from 1999 with a mix of some pre-1999 historical knowledge. In that case, you will find it difficult, if not impossible, to connect specific dots that you see today. Extensive and intensive reading may help, but politely interacting with veterans will do better. Unfortunately, social media, where most of the political debates occur, is dominated by youths who knew little or nothing pre-2011 and don’t invest significant time in reading but trying to engage or even confront the same veterans that would’ve been their best opportunity at understanding the genesis of the current situation.

There are some visible changes in Nigeria’s socio-political spaces, although not new but have taken a different twist from the previous. The renewed order is the attempt to criminalize certain political choices against others. Between 2014 to 2018, discourses were dominated by hate, campaigns of calumny, fabrications and outright abuse. Today, political promoters are trying hard to make it appear that only their candidates are good enough, and any other choice is treason. This is extremism. Let’s be careful, everything is a matter of opinion, and everyone is entitled to his.

Twitter: @AmirAbdulazeez

Tordue Simon Targema

One of the most disturbing illusions in the Nigerian political space is the age-long notion that “votes don’t count”. This notion is mainly responsible for wide-scale political apathy among the citizens, especially the youths who constitute the majority of the voting population. A striking irony with the notion, however, is that those who peddle and promote it are active voters who always make sure they vote at each poll- from the ward to national elections! This irony, therefore, exposes the folly of those who accept the notion and, thus, disenfranchise themselves.

Of course, it is no longer news that the Nigerian electoral process is enmeshed in malpractices – from vote-buying to actual duplication of ballot figures. Yes, the enormity of malpractices in the Nigerian electoral system is weighty and serves to sustain this ugly notion that has become a great source of worry today.

Notwithstanding these malpractices, a fact that cannot be contested remains that votes are still essential and determine who wins the election. Yes, this is a reality, and even a casual observation of the Nigerian electoral process justifies it. For example, have you ever wondered why electoral evils such as vote-buying, underage voting, ballot snatching and massive thumbprinting of ballot papers by thugs all thrive during elections? The answer is simple: it is because politicians understand that the final vote-tally matters most and would stop at nothing to ensure that more individuals vote for them!

As a Presiding Officer in one of Nigeria’s most keenly contested national elections- the 2015 general elections, and as a voter at several elections, both local and national, I have sufficient grounds to attest to the fact that votes do not just count, but that politicians also realise this fact and stop at nothing to get their supporters to vote for them. The desperation they usually demonstrate during election seasons to woo voters justifies this. You can, therefore, refuse to vote at your sole expense!

I served as a Presiding Officer in one of the most strategic elections in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. A popular candidate with a wide fan margin- Muhammadu Buhari, contested against the then-incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. Buhari and his kingmakers had convinced the masses that they had all the solutions to Nigeria’s numerous problems- which were, at that time, overwhelming like always. This narrative was supported by the fact that realities proved Jonathan to be a clueless weakling who lacked the strategy and tact to successfully navigate the country out of its numerous woes- endemic insecurity, pervasive corruption and deteriorating living standards.

Despite his limitations, Jonathan had a pool of supporters who still believed in his leadership philosophy, sympathised with him based on his developmental strides, tribe, region and religion, and also had the potent privilege of incumbency! Never underestimate the power of incumbency in Nigerian elections. This made the election one of the most highly contested, as the margin between the two top contenders eventually indicated.

But most striking is the fact that technology was introduced for the first time in the conduct of elections – the almighty card reader! This made almost all the difference and took the political class aback during the polls. The political class, sensing that it would no longer be business as usual, embarked on massive mobilisation and canvassing for votes. Money flew in the air- as it has become the custom with elections in the country, gifts and inducements of all kinds – clothes, foodstuffs, livestock etc., exchanged between the political class and the masses to woo them to vote.

I had an experience as a Presiding Officer that made me believe that politicians believe in voting as the surest way to win elections! Stakeholders in my polling unit tried their best to get me to manipulate the outcome of the presidential election but to no avail. I would tactically tell them that I had a template, and any manipulation of the outcome would go against my template. Although I had no problem with that, the results would be rejected at the collation centre! This would quickly disarm them, and I had my way through without any rancour. That way, I finished the presidential election without a hitch from any angle.

By the second election- gubernatorial and state assembly, I had to contend with yet another challenge! The elite had studied the workings of the card reader and decided on how to manipulate the election, but that could only still be possible if they got people to vote- even if they were illegal voters. A particular stakeholder insisted he would convey me on his bike from the collation centre to the polling unit- some several kilometres away from the ward collation centre, which was equally an interior rural area, far removed from the local government headquarters. I obliged.

On our way, he intimated to me of his ambition: he had hundreds of unclaimed voters cards belonging to his polling unit, which he wanted to use. He observed during the presidential election that voters whose cards were successfully authenticated by the card reader and those that the machine could not authenticate their cards due to one reason or the other were eligible to vote.

The card reader operates at two levels: accreditation, which confirms whether a given card belongs to a polling unit or not, and authentication, which verifies that a voter’s biometric records match those of the card they are carrying. Authentication is usually successful once the card confirms a voter’s thumbprint. Where it fails to confirm, authentication is deemed unsuccessful, but the voter can still vote – provided that the card is successfully accredited. The Presiding Officer then fills an incident report form for such a voter. At the end of the voting process, the total number of successfully authenticated cards and the unsuccessful ones is expected to tally with- or at least, be more than the total votes cast, not the other way round.

The stakeholder pleaded with me to allow him to use the cards he was carrying since both those whose biometric records are successfully authenticated and those whose records fail are eligible voters. When I consulted with my team at the polling unit, I discovered that they had already mobilised and were ready to disrupt the election should we reject the bid. As a confirmation, we had early reports from the neighbouring polling unit that the electoral officers were booted out of the village! The Supervisory Officer had to call all of us and seek our tactical cooperation in the interest of peace.

Stakeholders at our unit then embarked on aggressive canvassing for voters- because I categorically told them that I would not allow one person to vote twice, whatever happened! So they had to pay willing young men with no cards to the turn of N500 per voting to use the unclaimed cards and vote for their political parties. Funny enough, all political parties cooperated and brought their supporters to use the unclaimed cards and vote. We had a peaceful voting process afterwards.  

During the 2019 general elections, I had an amusing but similar experience, this time around as a voter and not an electoral staff. The stakeholders of my polling unit had hundreds of unclaimed voters cards belonging to the unit. They undertook to pay each available voter N500 to vote for their parties. My friend was into the game and had to vote as many as four times! In the fourth round, the Presiding Officer warned him to respect himself and not return.

Now tell me: if votes don’t count as purported – or say they don’t matter, why would politicians go that far to get people to vote for their parties? Have you ever observed how desperate political stakeholders are during voter registration? For example, in the first and only voter registration exercise I participated in as ad-hoc staff, I was posted to the village of a one-time Member, the House of Representatives, a very interior village that is hardly accessible.

The ex-Member solely undertook to take care of our welfare; provided our accommodation, a generator for our comfort at night, ensured that we had the best meals and all of that. Why would a man do that if he had known that votes are needless and all he needs to do is manipulate election results during elections?

By my analysis, winning an election in Nigeria today is the responsibility of two sets of individuals within a political party: the individual voters and the elite class. As a voter, your duty to your party and the preferred candidate is to vote – and get as many of your friends as possible to vote for him as well. Once you do that, you have fulfilled your responsibility as a party loyalist and patriotic citizen. Leave the rest to the elite; it does not concern you. Even if your party did not win in the end, the conviction that you played your part- as a patriotic citizen would- is enough consolation.

The greatest disservice many young men do to their favourite political parties and the country at large is to make all the noise on social media while they do not know what a voters card looks like, have never voted and have no intention to vote, after all, wallowing in the illusion that “votes don’t count in Nigeria after all”. This crop of individuals is the major problem we have in Nigeria.

A clarion call to all Nigerian youths as the 2023 election approaches is to disabuse your mindset of this counterproductive notion, register, get your voters card and vote. Votes actually count! Don’t be deceived.

Tordue Simon Targema is a doctoral student at the Department of Communication Arts, University of Uyo, and teaches in the department of Mass Communication, Taraba State University Jalingo. Email: torduesimon@gmail.com.

By Usama Abdullahi

I’m not actually driven by religious extremism, nor do I consider politicians based on their religious leanings. One’s religion or region shouldn’t determine their politics. When we look at politics through the prism of faith, we do ourselves no justice. I understand that the APC’s presidential nominee, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is conflicted with the idea of picking a running mate. 

Because Nigeria is a multi-religious nation, people suggest that the slot of the Vice-President for the APC presidential candidate be given to a northern Christian. According to them, a Muslim-Muslim ticket is abominable in Nigerian politics. And some people are endorsing Plateau State’s Governor Simon Lalong for the VP slot.

People are unaware of something. It’s easy for people to say who should the APC pick as running mate to Tinubu. But do we deem our favourite candidates suitable for such a seat because of the blind love we have for them? Or should we only nominate a person because of his ethno-religious affiliation? These are critical questions which need not be left unanswered. However, we all know these aren’t the criteria for selecting a genuine leader. 

Leaders are best chosen by how competent they are. Competence goes beyond our myopic views. Another big blunder we should avoid is choosing a leader because of his background. Now back to the equation. Is Lalong suitable for the vice-presidential seat? Well, I don’t think so. 

One thing people ought to acknowledge before they consider Lalong fit is his performance so far in the state he runs. What has he done remarkably to attract public attention? His performances are all that must be examined before we leap to a conclusion. Honestly, Simon Lalong hasn’t done that much that will earn him such a high position.

I’m not trying to de-market him, but for fairness’ sake, Lalong isn’t the right man for the job. A person whose tribal bigots administer the Local Government Council (LGC) doesn’t merit the title of a Governor, let alone aim for a much higher position. If you aren’t from his tribe, you lose the chance of winning an election for credible offices in his LGC.

I come from the same LGC as him, yet I can’t risk getting a mere indigene form. This is so because I’m not from his tribe. So to even have myself appointed by the local authorities, I must renounce my pedigree.

He knows all this. As an incumbent governor entrusted with the care of  people of diverse beliefs and ethnicities, he should have done something different. But, worst still, he chooses to go mum over such unfair treatment. He never talks about it. His silence isn’t golden. It either suggests his approval or his lackadaisical attitude towards that. 

However, before his ascent to power, he had sworn to install a village head in Yelwa during his campaign. Yelwa is a very popular village that contributed massively to his votes which saw his ascension from a dethroned speaker to a governor. The town is thrice the size of his hamlet and is within a shouting distance from his. Unfortunately, his first tenure ended without him making everything alright in that village. So my people decided to trust him again by voting for him for the second term, thinking he would redeem their precarious state. And now, we are just a few months away from the expiration of his tenure. Yet, he remains uncommunicative and insufficiently active.

Lalong has failed the people who helped his rise to power. So, how would you wish a ruling governor who silently fuels tribal prejudices among his people to be singled out as a running mate for the party with high chances of winning?

I won’t be worried about any other person that will be cherry-picked as a running mate to Tinubu as long as he is capable and has good track records. It isn’t that I seem purely envious of Lalong. On the contrary, I fear having a VP who has been speechless for the past seven years over the growing ethno-religious bigotry in the state he governs.

Usama Abdullahi can be reached via usamagayyi@gmail.com.

By Tajuddeen Ahmad Tijjani

All political parties’ primary elections have come and gone, leaving a slew of gladiators in the political arena plotting to sway the electorate into their camp to win the general elections.

From the return of democracy after a long military rule, Bauchi State had Adamu Mu’azu from 1999 to 2007. There was massive infrastructure in every nook and cranny of the state with little human development. However, many of these capital projects were concentrated in Bauchi, the state capital. When Isa Yuguda came on board from 2007 to 2015, he shifted to human development. Nevertheless, there was some infrastructure that would stand the test of time, like the Bauchi State University Gadau and the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa International Airport.

Indeed, there appears to be no better time when the good people of Bauchi State seek a governor who will serve them all than now. Certainly, there is a leadership vacuum regarding equal opportunities and the distribution of meagre resources. Not only that, I bet you, anything that leadership entails is comatose.

Nonetheless, there is still time for the current administration to make amends, and it is up to the people to decide their fate on who will take the mantle of leadership. As the election of 2023 approaches, who is the best candidate for the job?

What’s at stake is the ambiguity surrounding the payment of civil servants’ salaries. Unfortunately, no one on the state government payroll can be guaranteed that they will not be “deliberately omitted”. As a result, people have families under their control, and their only source of income is routinely squandered.

For instance, a credible report was that a particular ministry lodged their complaints to the state Accountant General. He bluntly told them it was beyond his power to make amends for the simple fact that the number one citizen is the architect of the lingering crisis. Shall we continue this way? It is left for the civil servants to seal their signatures if they are comfortable with the recent developments.

We’re not calling for people to vote based on primordial sentiments but rather to look for a competent hand who will never joke with workers and pensioners that have expended their energy on the development of Bauchi State. Yet, ironically, the end of their reward is to deny them their entitlements while the leadership is living flamboyantly with taxpayers’ money.

However, we will consider changing the narrative. The state is more significant than any individual to have a mindset of doing as he so wishes to the detriment of the larger society. Indeed, our people are waiting for the appropriate time to give him a dose of his own medicine.

Recall that Governor Muhammad Abdullahi Abubakar was unceremoniously voted out for the same offence that the current administration deliberately neglects or refuses to tackle.

There are insinuations that some power blocks or powerful forces are fighting the government of PDP in Bauchi. This fictitious or imaginary claim is far from the truth and can’t hold water. When a leader does the right thing, no one can stop or sabotage him. Therefore, I can boldly affirm that we are good at speaking the “language they understand”.

We hope that the good people of Bauchi will resolve to vote for a candidate who will treat all segments of the states as his constituency rather than focus on working for a single local government as if it were the only one that gave him votes. Even other sectors such as health and commerce are not receiving the attention they deserve. Thus, the internally generated revenue is not healthy, and our industries are left unattended. We need a governor who has the competence to address these issues head-on. The ball is in our court to take us out of the wounds or retrogress in the party of failure.

Tajuddeen Ahmad Tijjani writes from Galadima Mahmoud, Kasuwar Kaji, Azare, Bauchi state.

By Prof. Abdussamad Umar Jibia

The All Progressive Congress (APC) is undoubtedly a party that brings together some of the most outstanding politicians in Nigeria. However, what makes the APC most attractive is the fact that it is in power. It seized this power from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), a party that ruled Nigeria for 16 years and was also adjudged a failure by the majority of Nigerians. That is why many people do not see PDP as the solution despite all the shortcomings of the APC-led government and the economic and security challenges confronting Nigerians.

One manifestation of the interest Nigerians have in the APC is the occupation of social media discussions, radio and television programmes and interpersonal group discussions by the APC Presidential ticket. Last week, Asiwaju Bola Ahmad Tinubu, a devout Muslim from Lagos, won the APC Presidential primary election with a landslide to qualify as the party flag bearer in the 2023 presidential election. As is the tradition, Alhaji Tinubu, a southerner, is expected to pick a Northerner as his running mate.

But there is also another tradition. Christian flagbearers usually pick Muslim running mates, and Muslim flagbearers choose Christian running mates. The examples are many. In fact, since Nigeria’s return to party politics, that has been the case. First it was Obasanjo/Atiku, then Yaradua/Jonathan followed by Jonathan/Sambo and now Buhari/Osinbajo. But in all these examples, the Muslims are Northerners, and the Christians are southerners. There is no problem since it can be said with a reasonable degree of accuracy that Christians are the majority in the South and a negligible minority in the North.

Now, should Asiwaju pick a Northern Nigerian Christian as his running mate? I listened to many arguments. The Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasiru El-Rufai, for example, said religion does not matter in the choice of a running mate. What matters, according to him, is competence. This argument is faulty because democracy is about the choice of the majority, a choice characteristically influenced by many factors, including ethnicity, religion, gratifications, etc., in our country. If it is just about merit, candidates would be selected based on their performance in a standard examination on governance organized by my colleagues in Political Sciences Department.

The position of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is the most uncouth and uncivilized. CAN thinks they have a monopoly for violence and always use threats instead of valid logic. Suppose their position was backed by sound logic. In that case, all they have to do is present their arguments to Nigerians including Christians and non-Christians like every other individual and group does. The rest shall be for Nigerians to judge. Again, in politics, threat is the language of someone who has no one to influence, and it is obvious that peace-loving Nigerian Christians have lost faith in CAN and are no longer controlled by its rantings.

The fact is, any step taken by a political party preparing for an election is carefully handled to attract majority votes from the electorates. This includes the choice of its flagbearer and their running mate, its manifesto, which, unfortunately, most Nigerian voters do not read, its campaign strategy, etc.

Now, who are the majority voters in Northern Nigeria and what is their relationship with the minority? What would happen to the chances of APC if this majority realizes that the party is succumbing to threats like that of CAN to select its running mate? Is it by force to vote for the ruling party after all? Can’t they look and vote for an alternative?

Religion was not captured in the 2006 census. Still, we can have a good idea of the Muslim: Christian ratio in the North by considering the ratio of elected politicians in the North. Of the 19 elected governors in the North, 16 are Muslims representing 84.2 %, while three are Christians representing 15.8 % in the North and 8 % nationwide. Of the 58 senators from the North, nine are Christians representing 15.5 % in the North and 9 % in the entire country. In the North Central geopolitical zones, there are more Muslims than Christians. Four of the North Central elected governors are Muslims, with the other two being Christians.

These figures mean Northern Christians are a tiny minority compared to their Northern Muslim compatriots. Their number is even smaller when the country is considered as a whole and much smaller if we remember that most Christians in the North would not vote for APC regardless of its flagbearer or his running mate. You may wish to look at the voting pattern of Benue, Taraba and Southern Kaduna.

Over the years, activities of groups like CAN have set the Northern Christian minority against the Muslim majority. It is so bad that in any Northern Nigerian community where Christians are the majority, the story is about hate and violence against Muslims. The examples are many.

For example, as I am writing this piece, there is no single Muslim left in Tafawa Balewa, the hometown of the first Nigerian prime minister. The few Muslims who have not been killed have migrated to Bauchi and other places. Incidentally, that is the constituency of Yakubu Dogara, one of the Northern Christians being mentioned in the selection of a running mate for the APC flagbearer. In the event Dogara becomes the running mate of Asiwaju, the question every Northern Nigerian Muslim would ask is, is it compulsory for me to vote for my killer?

Other examples of Christian communities known for their violence against Muslims are Plateau State and Southern Kaduna. Over the last several decades, whole Muslim communities have been attacked and nearly wiped out in these places. Yet, when commissions of enquiry are set up, the grievances of the Northern Christians have always been that emirs dominate them, their great grandparents were enslaved, they are not given opportunities, etc.

Muslims have made many overtures in states where they have the majority in order to take Christians along and make them feel at home. An example of this is Kaduna state. It has always been ensured that the Deputy Governor of Kaduna is a Christian even though a Muslim-Muslim ticket can win with a landslide, as demonstrated in 2019. In their efforts to give Christians maximum opportunity, Muslim politicians were once suppressed to allow a Christian to become the governor. Where in the whole of the Christian world has this ever happened?

Moreover, chiefdoms were created for them by the Ahmed Makarfi administration to address Christians’ complaints of being traditionally ruled by emirs. After all these overtures, the same people killed over 1000 Muslims on one day in Zonkwa. Those who are saying that appointing a Christian as the running mate of Asiwaju would bring Christians and Muslims closer are probably not aware of this.

Compare the case of Kaduna with that of Plateau. Plateau has a population of Muslims equivalent to the population of Christians in Kaduna State. Yet, a Muslim has never been a Deputy Governor, much less a Governor. Attacks on Muslim communities in Plateau and Southern Kaduna only ceased because of the Fulani herders who, unlike the Hausa, would always take revenge when attacked. When the intolerant Christians realized it was a war they could not win, they had to declare peace.

That does not mean Muslim travellers are not intercepted in Plateau and massacred. We are very much aware of the murder of General Idris Alkali by Lafendeg non-Muslims. Yet, somehow, all the suspects arrested have been released due to the influence of the Governor, Simon Bako Lalong. We saw how he was running up and down between the state house and the Defence Headquarters to ensure that the culprits were not punished. Today, not even a fly of Plateau state has been convicted due to the murder of General Idris, a high-profile Muslim Army General.

Those pushing for Lalong to become Asiwaju’s running mate are probably ignorant of this. Suppose Lalong, who is only a Governor can successfully follow up to ensure that murderers of Muslims are not punished. What would happen if, tomorrow, he sits as the Acting President with full control of the country’s security apparatus and a similar thing happens?

Now take Babachir Lawal and the more charismatic Boss Mustapha. Both are from Adamawa State and were appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari only because he is Buhari, the darling of Northerners. The only question I have here is whether they have the political strength to defeat Atiku in their state. Certainly no. Outside Adamawa, other rules apply.

This write-up is not meant to malign any politician. On the contrary, all the Christian politicians I have mentioned above have APC dear to their hearts and wouldn’t like to see it lose at the polls. That is also the intention here.

Northern Nigerian Christians have not adequately prepared themselves for elections at the National level due to unnecessary inferiority complex and hate towards their Muslim neighbours. Of course, there are outstanding ones among them as no rule exists without exception. However, the collective behaviour of a community is used to assess people anywhere.

For now, Northern Christians may wish to set their house in order and plan for the future. Elections are not won by threats but by careful planning and building bridges.

Professor Abdussamad Jibia can be contacted via aujibia@gmail.com.

By Adamu Hussaini.

Since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, I have followed the politics and its sentiment based on region and religion for about two decades. The organic way it has been going is that whenever a southerner/Christian emerges as the presidential candidate of a particular party, his running mate will automatically be a Muslim from the northern region and vice visa. This has been the practice starting from the days of President Olusegun Obasanjo, a southwestern Christian, to his successor, late Umaru Musa Yar’adua of blessed memory. Who came from a northwestern Muslim family to Dr Goodluck Jonathan, an Ijaw Christian from the south-south Niger Delta region, down to the current President, Muhammadu Buhari of the northern extraction.

 All their running mates are from other regions and religious divides. The only time in Nigerian Democratic history where a Muslim-Muslim ticket was formed was in late MKO Abiola’s June 12, 1993, with his running mate Babagana Kingibe.

If we can recall vividly, after the 2014 presidential primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), President Muhamadu Buhari wanted to pick Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as his running mate. But other powerful politicians, like the former senate president and a two-term Governor of Kwara State, Senator Bukola Saraki, stood their ground and vehemently opposed it because of the fear of having a Muslim-Muslim ticket. We left it for history to judge whether they did it based on fairness or selfish political interest.

Suddenly, the political equations are trying to deviate from the known established political norms, which characterized the Nigerian politics of regional and religious sentiments; after the emergence of Senator Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, a Muslim as the APC presidential candidate and the party’s flag bearer for the 2023 general election. Tinubu was a former Southwestern Lagos State governor. Since Tinubu is a Muslim from the south, Nigerians expect him to pick a northern Christian as his running mate this time. This will be seen as fairness, equity, “JUSTICE,” and the possibility of carrying all the religious beliefs.

But considering a Christian running mate has its political consequences. Because many may argue that northern politics is based on religious sentiments, you may find that there are only three states, Taraba, Benue and Plateau state, out of the 19 northern states that have Christians as both the Governor and their deputy. So, why not the party pick a Muslim from the north as Senator Tinubu’s running mate? Since the primary reason(s) for forming a political party is to win elections.

Many believed that the opposition People Democratic Party, PDP jettisoned its zoning arrangement to field the former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate to woo northern votes. Since the northwestern state of Kano has more votes than some five small states in the south, in this case, Tinubu’s running mate should be a Muslim from the northwest, where there are a lot of votes or the northeastern part of the country, where they have never produced a Nigerian president in the last 20 years for equity sake. In my little political observation. PDP gave Alhaji Atiku Abubakar the ticket because religious politics is more pronounced in Arewa than in the southern part of Nigeria.

Lastly, I think the earlier we start looking at who has competence, vision, enviable track record, and pedigree, among other virtues, the better for us as a people. And not electing or supporting candidates because of the region they came from, or their religious beliefs are better for the country. Nigeria is the most populous black nation in the world. So anything happening there may affect other black races living on the African continent. as the saying goes, “a stitch in time saves nine.”

Hussaini wrote from Gombe state, Nigeria and can be reached through hadamugombe@gmail.com.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

Former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmad Tinubu, has been declared the winner of the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential primary election. 

APC held a special convention between 6 to 8 of June 2022 to elect the ruling party’s presidential candidate.

Tinubu emerged as the APC candidate at the end of the presidential primary after polling about 60% of the 2300 votes. 

He defeated his closest rivals, Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo and former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Chibueke Amaechi, to clinch the ruling party’s ticket.

Tinubu is expected to face the candidate of the country’s major opposition party, Atiku Abubakar, and others in the 2023 general election.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

Former Governor of Borno State and Director General of Bola Ahmad Tinubu’s Campaign Organization, Senator Kashim Shettima, has tendered his heartfelt apology to Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, and the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan. 

Shettima posted the apology on Facebook on Sunday, June 5, 2022, where he stated that his comments on the VP and Senate President were taken out of context and overblown. 

In an interview on Channels Television on Thursday, Shettima compared the VP’s nice demeanour to an ice-cream seller and Ahmad Lawan’s name to a tomato seller.

“My assessments of the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, and the President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan, were well-intentioned. I never set out to subject them to ridicule but, rather, to stir up interest in the contrasting virtues of the cast of aspirants putting up a fight against my preferred aspirant, one most favoured and advantaged to guarantee APC’s victory in the forthcoming presidential election. 

“The interpretations of my remarks on Professor Osinbajo and Senator Lawan are, thus, being done literally and overblown. My words weren’t woven to portray them as unworthy aspirants but merely to qualify them as non-threatening contenders.

“I, however, take full responsibility for my utterances and wish to appeal to our teeming supporters to neither take my words out of their metaphoric contexts nor interpret them as a measure and declaration of hostility towards my dear friends and allies.

“I hereby tender my unreserved apologies to the Vice President and the President of the Senate for the unintended pains my jibes might have caused them and their families and supporters.” The statement reads in part. 

Shettima then urges different All Progressives Congress camps to be united, as the journey to the general election is about to start.

By Ali Tijjani Hassan

One would be amazed while looking at the similarities between the words “Religion and Region.” One will be even more amazed by how these twin factors play an unimaginable role in Nigerian politics.

Nigeria is divided into six geopolitical zones; North-central, Northwest, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest and South-South. In a nutshell, South and North. In terms of Religious diversity, we have only two major religions: Christianity and Islam. Subsequently, Christianity and Islam dominate South and North, respectively.

As the main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, elected Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as its flag-bearer in the forthcoming polls of 2023. On the other hand, the ruling party, the All Progressive Congress, has yet to choose their flag-bearer capable of winning the election against Atiku.

The APC has zoned their presidential quota to the South-West and Vice President to the Northeast. Their front-line aspirants (Tinubu, Osinbajo) are already from the Southwest. Alhaji Ahmad Bola Tinubu was a former governor of Lagos state. Prof. Yemi Osinbajo is currently on the echelon of his second-cum-two terms as Vice President of Nigeria.

Religion is another factor we have seen since the birth of Democracy in Nigeria in 1999. How religion plays a role in who would be President or Vice President, the candle of Muslim-Christian or Christian-Muslim tickets is still flaming. We witnessed Obasanjo/Atiku, Yar Adu’a/Jonathan, Jonathan/Namadi, and Buhari/Osinbajo.

The nightmare to the APC is how to relate their zoned system with the emergence of their candidates. Both Tinubu and Osinbajo are competent, but Tinubu, like his counterpart of PDP, is a gigantic gorilla that wouldn’t allow any candidate to win over them.

If Tinubu emerges as a flag-bearer, he has no option but to pick the former speaker of the house of representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, since he is the only influential Christian of the party from the Northeast. Sequel of this, both North and South wouldn’t produce a candidate that is not condign to their religious interest.

Professor Yemi Osinbajo

Prof. Yemi Osinbajo is an influential Christian Southerner that was once seen as ready to serve in the eyes of Nigerians. Still, the disregard of the present Buhari-led administration tarnishes his striking image with red.

If Osinbajo gets the ticket, he must pick his running-mate from Northeast. Then Osinbajo’s running-mate must be an influential Muslim and northerner with integrity, accountability and competency. The qualities mentioned above would win the hearts of Northerners to revive the fallen hope that they put into the APC earlier.

It has been in the tradition of Northern politics since 2003, when president Muhammad Buhari stepped his foot into the presidential race arena. There is a constant twelve million votes that were captives in his favour. Therefore, whosoever would be Osinbajo’s running-mate must have the passkeys to open or conquer the twelve million vote bank.

Who will be Osinbajo’s running-mate?

Here in the Northeast, we have only two politically influential actors capable of running with Osinbajo and likely to conquer: The first is Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum, the governor of Borno State.

Prof. Zulum was a legend of fortune. Although he became the governor of Borno when the state was in the sorrow of insurgency, his braveness, doggedness, and justice with fairness made him the messiah of the Borno people then. That fortunate promotion paved Zulum’s way to be loved by many Nigerians.

The second influential Muslim northeasterner that could win the hearts of northerners and retain or succeed the Buhari’s twelve million votes is the minister of communication and digital economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami. Due to his Islamic religious sacerdotalism, the Sunnis sect fanatic would vote for him. Mainly, northern Muslims are Sunni. Therefore, a Pastor/Sheikh ticket is also possible.

Ipso-facto, we should say that the upcoming 2023 will be a “religion and region” war.

Ali Tijjani Hassan writes from Potiskum, Yobe state.