Opinion: What Muslim/Muslim Ticket Are We Even Talking About?

By Jesutega Onokpasa

I do not know the precise religious demographics of All Progressives Congress, APC, Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s family but I know it’s a Christian/Muslim mix. Nevertheless, it is most likely to be the case that Bola Tinubu goes to bed at night in his own house and, yet, he went to bed surrounded by Christians.

Needless to say, the same Bola Tinubu will wake up the next morning in a house in which he is probably the only Muslim on that particular occasion! Is this really the sort of Muslim candidate, somebody seriously expects us, as Christians, to oppose on the basis of religion?

I do not joke with my Lord Jesus Christ neither the religion I practice in His Most Holy Name. Indeed, the man, person, personality, spirit or force that should be able to entice, persuade, hoodwink or intimidate me out of Christianity does not exist, has never existed and can never exist. I will remain Christian and proclaim the Kingdom till Jesus comes! That is how fierce and utterly unshakable I am in my religious persuasion.

Now, a precept of my Jesus is that “by their fruits, you shall know them”. Indeed, even if many Christians might not be aware of it, this dictum of Our Lord is the basis of the Christian theological approach to the definition of the concept of the faithful of God, in other words, the Children of God.

If we are to discard the intrinsically misleading labels and woefully false tags we have become most unfortunately and rather miserably hostage to, I would say Bola Tinubu is, at least, as good a Christian as my humble self, if not, indeed, a better one. In fact, be it from the point of view of personal morality or public conduct, family background and life experiences, world view or approach to life, I cannot, in any honesty, see the basis upon which I might legitimately discriminate against someone like Tinubu other than on the completely untenable ground that he is a Muslim! And, if I were to do so, I would be going directly against the dictates of Jesus, my Saviour.

If law has taught me anything, it is to go beyond the surface to ascertain what truly lies underneath. If politics has taught me anything, it is to assess others on the basis of their achievements, attainments and stewardship. If activism has taught me anything, it is to judge everyone on the basis of the content of their character and not in accordance with some shameful paradigm such as the colour of their religious persuasion! If Christianity has taught me anything, it is not to judge lest I be judged.

Yes, Bola Tinubu is a Muslim and his running mate Kashim Shettima is also a Muslim but labelling, usages and nomenclature aside, I cannot, in any good conscience, see how the Tinubu/Shettima ticket is actually a Muslim/Muslim ticket for, in reality, it is practically no different from a Christian/Muslim ticket, if we are to tell ourselves the truth. Tinubu is a Yoruba man for God’s sake! If, as Christians, we would discriminate against a Yoruba Muslim, what sort of Muslim should we ever be able to get along with in the whole world?

I support the ticket knowing that a man who could not convert his own wife nor compel his own children to his religion cannot possibly endanger my religion in any way. I support Tinubu because he is by far the undisputed and indisputable number one performer in public administration since our return to democracy in 1999, if not in the entire history of this country.

I support Shettima for being able to keep Borno afloat, while bringing dividends of democracy to the people, even in the midst of the height of the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East of our country. I cannot see how Peter Obi, as Governor of Anambra, despite all that may be said in his favour, surpasses even Kashim Shettima as Governor of Borno, much less Bola Tinubu as Governor of Lagos! Peter Obi certainly never encountered, in Anambra, the sorts of challenges Shettima had to face in Borno, and yet delivered in spite of all the odds stacked against him. As for comparing him to Tinubu as Governor of Lagos, titan of the South-west and phenomenon of Nigerian politics, Obi is at best still a learner, if not a complete nonstarter, I am sorry but must say.

Regarding Atiku Abubarkar, he is certainly not going to be Nigeria’s President for he cannot steal the turn of the South and expect to have a country to rule if he were to win. There is a subsisting consensus for power to rotate between North and South and it exists and is maintained for national cohesion and the unity of this country. To violate it is to treasonously threaten our corporate existence as a nation. Perhaps it would not be a bad idea for Atiku to now consider running for President in Cameroon, for a change.

I therefore stand with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. He is, indeed, a Muslim but when I look beyond the labels and take a closer look at him, he easily emerges before me as also my best Christian candidate for President in 2023! I cannot discriminate against a man who practices his religion with an enlightenment indistinguishable from the one with which I practice mine. I will not, in servitude to inanities, discriminate against a man, who, by the verifiable and readily ascertainable evidence of his accomplishments in governance, will make and leave my country a much better place than he will meet it as President. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is the best man running for President and, for our own good and the good of this nation, that is a fact we simply cannot afford to ignore.

Onokpasa, a lawyer, writes in from Warri, Delta state