….Concluded
As indicated, one of the drawbacks of democracy brand is that it is more concerned about recreating the past as against the democracy philosophy whose interest is in building the future. Framed into a question, does the argument of protagonists of Tinubu/APC’s same faith, Muslim-Muslim ticket replicating the Abiola/Kingibe 1993 presidential election conform to democracy brand?
And what does this imply for the future growth of democracy in Nigeria? The first question has a straight-forward answer: Yes. It is a democracy brand. Furthermore, growth and advancement is not about “recreating the past” as the protagonists of Tinubu/APC’s same faith, Muslim-Muslim ticket are arguing. Breaking the walls of restriction to unveil new possibilities is what democracy philosophy is all about.
It is also a point invalidating the argument of those attempting to relate “an unintended error from Nigeria’s past” with “a deliberate action taken to pervert a working democracy defensive order” arising from selfish reasons.
It is evident that the Muslim-Muslim, single-faith candidature of Tinubu is a form of triggering identity politics in Nigeria. Ironically, Tinubu and APC ought to be the last and the least of Nigerian political leaders and political parties to engage in such a below-the-line, parochial politics. Tinubu and APC profess to be progressives.
The major defining credential of a progressive is progressivism. Progressivism means breaking barriers, creating new vistas, exploding myths, challenging status quo and setting forth in a new direction from the conservative past. What is wrong in Tinubu/APC therefore picking a Christian from the north as his vice-presidential candidate for the 2023 presidential election and working to make such a novel move politically correct?
Apart from the two states that have consistently had Christian governors since 1999 (Benue and Plateau states), there are four others – Kaduna, Adamawa, Taraba and Kogi – that have had mixed-faith Christian and Muslim governors at one time or the other. Nigerians of both faiths live in those states. They voted for the candidates. Instead of deepening one of our fault lines, Tinubu/APC should have used the opportunity of the 2023 presidential election to attempt a brave integration of the Christian minority in the north into the mainstream of the region’s public life. A northern Christian vice president benefitted with high visibility by reason of office and position of height in political leadership of the country may be the beginning of breaking the walls of the deep seated religio-cultural antagonism of the minorities in the north. It may be the beginning of sowing the seed of acceptance, equity, inclusion, justice, togetherness, tolerance, accommodation, and participation of all citizens irrespective of religion and origin in north. A north where Muslims relate with Christians with no animosity, distrust, and all ready to subject themselves to the rule of law and the credo of democratic governance may be the beginning of a new north, and indeed, a new Nigeria by extension.
The APC/Tinubu, for that reason, made a bad choice with the same-faith, Muslim-Muslim ticket. It is a decision that is flawed politically and faulty theoretically. The choice represents a nonsensical democracy brand. It takes away rather than add to the established defensive democracy mechanism that religious sensibility has built for Nigeria’s political process over the years. Paradoxically, Tinubu is not realising the damage – present and future – that the decision is exposing him to. Here is a man that has the potential of becoming a statesman, indeed a man to whom history has beckoned to emerge as the “father of a modern Nigeria.” Courage is what he needs, the bravery that saw him dismantle every stumbling block in his path towards winning the APC’s presidential ticket. Now, the lion can’t dare, scared to do the right thing. As the Irish-born British statesman and politician, Edmund Burke said, “The great difference [between a statesman and a politician] is that one sees into the future, while the other regards the present; the one lives by the day, and acts on expedience; the other acts on enduring principles and for immortality.” If Tinubu/APC made Buhari acceptable to the South-West in 2015, why can’t the same party and Tinubu now in 2022 sell a Christian vice-presidential candidate to the North-East and North-West? Why?
Gbenga Gbesan,a journalist,social affairs commentator writes in from Abeokuta,Ogun state
