Tinubu-Shettima Ticket: Much Ado about Religion
Dele Afelumo
The tsunami of rumpus trailing the announcement of the erstwhile governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima as Bola Tinubu’s running mate is still raging ferociously across the length and breadth of our country. With a knee-jerk reflex, many have condemned the choice as being flagrantly arrogant, contemptibly cocky, insensitive and despicable. Many have done some permutations to conclude that it was a Titanic ship doomed to sink and that the master strategist had misfired and shot himself in the foot. The atavistic bug of fears and instincts has perched on everybody and it’s difficult to extricate because of our chequered past.
With the avalanche of ripostes and commentaries, one can conclude that the Muslim-Muslim ticket has reawakened the vested interest in an otherwise docile, apolitical and uninterested people with laissez-faire dispositions. The leading opposition parties are in absolute epicaricacy as APC is seen to be having a macabre dance.
William Shakespeare’s epic play, “As You Like It” is apt here. In it, Duke Senior stated in Act 2 Scene 1 when he faced adversity of banishment: “Sweet are the uses of adversity, which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head; and this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything”. That statement in William Shakespeare’s book summed up all the reactions following the unmasking of the big masquerade by Tinubu and APC.
In my own opinion, the choice of Shettima is a welcome development that has many positives than negatives. To have generated that much debate in the public sphere, for me, is an attestation to the popularity and acceptability of its flag bearer, Tinubu as the man to beat in the forthcoming general elections.
Perhaps, the gruesome and horrific murders of Christians and destruction of churches in the last seven years of Buhari presidency might have informed the proponents of a Muslim-Christian ticket to argue against Tinubu’s choice and also want him to reflect the country’s secularism. For whatever reasons, a Muslim-Muslim ticket is not synonymous with luciferous expeditions. These proponents went amnesic when reminded that the carnage by the murderous lots was visited on the faithful of both dominant religions – Islam and Christianity. Also, they forgot that the number two man in the country in the past seven years is not only a Christian but an ordained Pastor. Have his position, religious leaning and clout prevented the orgy of violence witnessed in the last seven years? Your guess is as good as mine.
Under the watch of President Olusegun Obasanjo, a theocratic monster was incubated, born, nourished and nurtured to maturity in Zamfara State and other states in the North later joined the fray. One had expected Obasanjo, a wily tiger, not only to pronounce its tigritude but to pounce, since Sharia was unconstitutional but an anathema that threw the country then into a season of anomy. For yet unknown reasons, Obasanjo prevaricated and preferred to let a sleeping dog lie. He sailed in the tide of self-abnegation when confronted on the chronic sore he allowed to fester. Under him, some Christians were also mowed down mercilessly in cold blood. The proliferation of Sharia was the harbinger of many socio-religious maladies, upheavals and disequilibrium in our society ever since and the evil precocity of that theocratic order is still having cataclysmic repercussions till today.
Throughout his tenure, apart from the completion of the ecumenical church in Abuja and photoshop attendance of Christmas and Easter services, the body of Christ did not fare any better in comparison to other regimes before or after his.
That Peter Obi chose a Muslim running mate or Atiku chose a Christian running mate is not a fait-accompli that all will be well if any of them coasts to victory in 2023 election. Religion was not particularly a consideration before the Ibrahim Babangida regime enlisted Nigeria into the Organisation of Islamic Countries, despite all the hues and cries against the move. It was the pathogenesis of our religious violence and remained a sour apple that bred hate, mutual suspicion of religious dominance and fear of a dastardly, inordinate attempt to elevate one religion above all others as a state religion. The perennial killings of Christians thereafter, further heightened the morbid fear of Islamization. It is therefore a ruse to think that the interests of Christians are only protected by a Christian president or vice-president.
Tinubu and Shettima are both moderate and neo-liberal elitist Muslims who are not given to religious bigotry. Religious fundamentalism is one of the most labyrinthine intellectual swindles weaponized by some top fanatical opportunists to commit crimes through their brainwashed acolytes that dot our terrains. These two personalities are capable of rescuing the sinking ship of the country if people are not swayed by ephemeral and obsequious media frenzy, sophistry and chicanery of a hubristic pilot who sees other contestants as mere drivers. In the duo, I see Nigeria taking its rightful position in the comity of nations.
In them, I see a new dawn where emancipation of the people from poverty becomes the cornerstone of their cardinal programme. In these two men, I see restoration of all we have lost – ending the locust years for years of bumper harvests. I see in these two quintessential figures, a country where people have their inalienable rights to freely practise their religions without coercion or fear of being killed. In these men, I see the rule of law taking the centre-stage of our daily lives. I clairvoyantly see a dispensation, with Tinubu and Shettima in the saddle of power, where justice will reign supreme in all we do. I see us all sleeping with our two eyes closed without any fear. I see our roads and forests rid of criminals who have amassed humongous amounts of filthy lucres through ransom payments from kidnappings. In these two, I see economic prosperity and exponential growth of our Gross Domestic Products (GDP). I see in them a country where the perennial ASUU strikes have a long-lasting solution and students are able to graduate in record times.
In these two, I see our medium of exchange which has plummeted to brass of ungainly brand to gold being sought and courted by many countries of the world. In these two men, I see immigrants from Nigeria having their dignities intact and respected for their contributions to the outside world rather than being seen as economic migrants fleeing hunger and destitution back home. I see the green passport we hold being respected and in the same league as other major international passports. In a nutshell, I see Nigerians living in peace and tranquility and full of hopes.
Has there really been unity in the body of Christ? Is condescension not reigning supreme in our midst? Pentecostal Pastors do see themselves as vibrant preachers and with vast knowledge of the Bible and see orthodox churches – from where they severed their umbilical cords – as not doing the will of God. Can the Pentecostal Christians worship together with the Celestial churches in the same arena without upbraiding their spirituality? Even within the same fold, there is a yawning schism long apparent to many members that is crying to be fixed. A short allegory will suffice here.
A few years ago, a priest was seconded from one of the Anglican dioceses in the South-east to the Lagos West diocese under the episcopacy of the late Right Reverend Peter Awelewa Adebiyi. This Bishop had all the grounds to either accept or reject such a priest. Bishop Adebiyi, in his benevolence, posted the priest to an Anglican church in Mushin archdeaconry with majority of the parishioners being of Igbo extraction. It is the norm in the Anglican doctrine for each archdeaconry to receive the presiding Bishop and his encourage at least once a year in what is known as episcopal visit. When the episcopal visit was to be paid by late Reverend Adebiyi to this Mushin archdeaconry, snafus, bedlam and furore rented the air as he was declared a persona-non-grata. The bone of contention was that he is Yoruba and not deemed acceptable as Bishop presiding over a church populated by Igbo people!
Tinubu, whose trajectory I have painstakingly followed for many years, remains a very liberal-minded, urbane, brilliant, sagacious and generous personality who rose from the ashes to become a force to be reckoned with, locally and internationally. He was not born with any silver spoon. Undaunted by his poverty-stricken childhood, and with cast-iron determination to attain an Olympian height, he worked like a Trojan horse in the windy, cold and inclement weather of Chicago to come atop his class, garnering many awards upon graduation. He later became a beautiful bride courted by many blue-chip companies in the USA. He loathed racism with all the vile and bile in him and returned to his fatherland to contribute his quota to its development. Lagos is still a project undergoing modifications every day but when he superintended over it, it witnessed rapid transformations in all its facets. He has etched his name in gold in Lagos.
Shettima gave befitting facelifts to Maiduguri and many towns while he held sway as governor in Borno State. He touched the lives of ordinary Borno citizens positively, despite its many security challenges. His life-changing projects across Borno State are indelible in the annals of history in the state. Both men are not given to frivolities and will not sit idly by to see Nigeria consumed by religious fanaticism. Both are garbed in sartorial regality to chart a paradigm shift for our failing and flailing nation.
These indeed are interesting times for political intrigues and shenanigans. Political scumbags will willfully and relentlessly throw incendiary and acerbic adjectives on other contestants that they love to hate.
Everybody is playing God and doctor simultaneously. Many diagnoses that are alien to me as a doctor are flying around concerning the health of Asiwaju Tinubu. Ostensibly, the purveyors of these social media diagnoses have forgotten that only God knows who will die at an appointed time. From many years of clinical practice, I have seen some apparently healthy fellows die suddenly while some deemed infirm were kicking fine many years after. Asiwaju has a rich coterie of international doctors which I am sure would have appropriately advised him if he could stand the presidential rigours or not.
Fitness for jobs is one of the most basic assessments a doctor can do for his patient and I am very sure his doctors must have done many of such. Let’s stop peddling the tantalizing tale of fantasy to oil the wheel of sickening and sickly scallywags. Let the putrid megaphone of mendacity care about their own health rather than that of Asiwaju. Despite all these uncivil and infantile resort to dirty intrigues, I see Asiwaju killing their Jabberwocky through cerebral depositions, conduct and honest unfolding of his manifestos. He will not rest on his laurels by shunning complacency.
Rather than threaten fire and brimstone, I feel the Christian Association of Nigeria should have a round-table parley with the Tinubu and his running mate, extract commitments and assurances from them that the constitution, albeit imperfect as it presently is, is supreme and it lends credence to the secularism of our country. Also, that whoever kills on the cauldron of religion should meet the same fate expeditiously. Years of impunity must end. The gory, horrendous and blood-chilling crimes of the last seven years must be consigned to the dustbins of our history and we must say never again should we tread that inglorious and famished path.
Dr. Dele Afelumo, a Physician wrote via: drdeleafelumo98@gmail.com
