Muslim-Muslim Ticket: An Insult To Muslims

 

Nigeria

Much attention has trailed the choice of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to field two Muslims, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Kashim Shettima as presidential and vice presidential candidates respectively. However, if Nigerians were to embrace objectivity, it would not matter if Tinubu picked the Sultan of Sokoto as his running mate.

As it stands, attention is shifting away from core pressing problems bedeviling the country to a religious tussle between Muslims and Christians. Northern Muslims are at the center of this. Should northern Muslims make the coming election a fight for better security, poverty alleviation and social amenities or should they defend the current Muslim politicians against supposed Christian enemies?

For anyone who is intelligent enough to observe, the reason behind APC’s decision is clear. Bola Tinubu has no credibility. The source of his wealth, age, and even name are still shrouded in mystery. He is a national leader of the party that has gotten Nigeria to its lowest point ever, and the APC is adamant on keeping the country on its current course to destruction.

It is easy to piece together the conversations going on in the APC camp.

‘How do we win this election? If the election is going to be issues-based, we will lose abysmally. Let us capitalize on gullibility. Muslims are the majority in Nigeria; let’s prey on their sentiments and use their population to our advantage.’

This is the strategy playing out. What APC is doing can simply be called weaponisation of Islam. It will be observed that APC officials and supporters have been making statements of notoriety simply to stoke up ethno-religious tension. It is a diversion strategy. 

Majority of Nigerian voters are Muslims, the most powerful positions in the country are occupied by Muslims yet, the people suffering the most in Nigeria are Muslims. More Muslims have been killed in the last eight years than in any other period in the country’s history. In 2018, Nigeria was declared the poverty capital of the world by Brookings Institution and the World Poverty Clock (WPC) reiterated this. In 2020, the World Bank revealed that 87% of Nigeria’s poverty load is in northern Nigeria (Muslims).

If with these, you still intend to make Muslims vote by religious sentiments then, you must take Muslims for cows. This move by the APC shows utter disregard for the intellect of Muslims in Nigeria, particularly northern Muslims.

A party that will risk a civil war just to maintain grip on power is not just an enemy of the state but an enemy to humanity.