Viewing Nigeria from El-Rufai’s microscopic lens

Nigeria, already, is a disaster! I don’t need to explain this. We are all casualties, as J.P. Clark aptly poeticised.

One thing I’ve come to understand about these politicians is that religion, to them, is just a political identity. They identify as Christians or Muslims, a facade adequately preserved to be deployed at any given moment. We all know they are literally 70% traditionalists. Don’t fact-check me, please.

In a moment like this, tell a Muslim aspirant that there’s one powerful prophet in Igbajo who has one or two things to tell him. He will summon his most-trusted aide and driver. They will disguise and move quietly from Lagos to Osun and perform some rituals. Tell a Christian aspirant that a popular Islamic cleric in Offa has said this or that about him and his ambition, he will quietly sneak into the mosque and recite some prayers for six hours.

That is why a Christian politician will somehow remember that the name his grandma gave him at birth was Mudashiru just because he wants to rise in Lagos politics. In Ekiti, a Muslim aspirant may not even have a chance after erasing his Islamic middle name to become Jeremiah. Again, I say religion is just a political identity.

Do they even fear the God they profess to? That’s a discussion for another day.

So, for the purpose of this essay, let’s leave the traditional religion and atheism out of the discourse and assume we are all Christians and Muslims.

Now to the issue of Muslim/Muslim — Christian/Christian ticket, if it wasn’t good enough in 2015, why should it be a welcoming idea now? The political dynamics has changed, I guess. Religion no longer matters in 2023, right? Not that I care about religion though, but this is not about me. Nigeria is a highly sensitive nation as far as religion is concerned.

I’m particularly upset with the nonsense Nasir el-Rufai tried to justify a few days ago. El-Rufai was at his best in convincing the northern APC bloc to respect zoning and move the presidency to the south in order to maintain balance at this fragile period of our nation. With a forked tongue, el-Rufai came back some days after to express displeasure over fixation on religion in determining candidacy. How does this add up? Does same religion ticket look like balance in a diverse and sensitive country like Nigeria? How do you want others to have a sense of belonging? How will a Muslim president and Muslim vice-president pacify Owo people when the federal government said the carnage that took place in the historic town some days ago was orchestrated by the Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP)?

The Kaduna governor wants to visualise Nigeria from the microscopic lens of a crisis-ridden Kaduna. If el-Rufai strongly feels the fixation of Nigerians on religion is pathetic, he should lead by example and promote a Christian/Christian ticket in Kaduna like he did with his Muslim/Muslim administration. This Lilliputian philosophy the governor is preaching has no place in present-day Nigeria. You cannot be a hero of regional balance last week and suddenly become a clever adversary of religious balance this week.

If the north has issues with presenting a Christian deputy for a presidential candidate, how do you expect a Christian-dominated south to accept a Muslim/Muslim ticket? I don’t think any Christian has a problem with the presidential candidates of the two prominent parties being Muslims. But it is stupid to pontificate that the religions of their deputies don’t matter in as much they have the capacity to deliver. There are capable people in both religions from the two regions. That kind of fraudulent logic can only be sold to a dummy.

How do we heal the nation when it’s already difficult to convince a large chunk of southerners that Christians are not targeted for killings across the country? We are in a mess already. Today, President Muhammadu Buhari said he “lives daily in grief and worry” as a result of the current state of the country.

Actually, it is not that el-Rufai, a former FCT minister currently serving a second term as governor, doesn’t know all these things I’m saying. It’s just that “agenda must agend”. The handwritings are clear on the wall.

Taiwo Adebulu, an award-winning journalist, writes from Lagos