Nigeria 2023 Election: Muslim-Muslim Ticket is Insensitive and Cruel

Nigeria 2023 Election: Same-Faith Ticket is Insensitive and Cruel

In less than 24 hours, Nigerians will again throng the polls to elect their president. There are three top contenders: Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress and Peter Obi of the Labour Party.

Nigeria, easily the giant of Africa in terms of population and size is multi-ethnic and religious country. In terms of religion, the predominant ones are Christianity (predominantly in the South of Nigeria) and Islam (predominantly in the North). In terms of ethnicity, the Hausa in the north are predominantly Muslims, more than 80 percent. The Yoruba in the South-West have about 70 percent Christians and 40 percent Muslims. The Igbo in the South-East and South-South of Nigeria are predominantly Christians, more than 90 percent. Historically, the people of Nigeria know their differences; a panacea to which is their creed for equitable representation in government.

There have negative consequences for lack of equitable representation in terms of religion and ethnicity. The Nigerian civil war fought between 1967 and 1970 was a major consequence of perceived imbalance in the representation of the various segments of the country. In order to forestall further crises, Nigerian leaders are careful to balance appointments into federal positions.

Political parties also tow this path by ensuring that their candidates for any national positions reflect the diversity of the people.

In the build-up to the 2023 elections, the All Progressive Congress is the only major political party that failed to recognise the diversity of the people as it fielded a same-faith ticket: Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a Southern Muslim and Ibrahim Shettima, a Northern Muslim for the positions of the President and Vice respectively. This ticket fails to observe that Christians in the country need representation in the government. a lot of Muslim who defend Muslim-Muslim ticket will be opposed to Christian-Christian ticket for the same reason of equal representation.

The level of insecurity, often heightened by religious issues are already high in Nigeria. Installing a same-faith ticket at this time will further aggravate the situation and make it worse. It is our considered view that the same-faith ticket of the APC is insensitive and cruel and as such is not good for the people of Nigeria.

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