Fr. Richard OMOLADE

It is election time and people vote for a variety of reasons.  Some vote along party lines, for some, it is “their person” that they vote for. Some look at the political agenda of the candidates and vote for the ones they feel best represent their interest. Whatever the case, each voter is called to make his or her critical decision as to the choice of candidates. Sometimes people are forced to make certain decisions because of the prevailing circumstances. One of such circumstances is the present moment when we are once again presented with two Muslim candidates for the most exalted office in the land. We must factor into the equation the fact that Nigeria is classified as a secular state, that is there is no state religion and religion ought not to be the defining criteria for decision making. As good as this may be for the good of all masses, it is a misnomer because the Muslim have traditionally asserted that their religion is a way of life and must be brought to shape everything, including politics.

Whatever the reason behind the APC decision to still field their Muslim-Muslim ticket, they have not told us, but we can guess that it would appear that after tolerating them for the first regime, they have again decided to do their own will without regard for the masses who also hold religion very dearly in their life. This is particularly painful to the millions of Christians in Nigeria who often are on the receiving end of abuses, hostile Government policies and bias in other public engagements. Christians are a formidable force, and they have not always played their powerful card, because often, they expect that competence should be allowed to prevail. But this is Nigeria where common sense is often absent from the discussion. Many times, it is power that prevails, the one who has the power to do as he will often decides many things to his own advantage and the displeasure of the commoners.

In a sane society, no one will bother about two Muslim leaders as long as they are perceived to be skilled and able to deliver, but religion always imposes its overarching influence on things and it has been noted in the past for leaders to fall to the pressure and machinations of the adherents of his faith.  In the current dispensation, we have a president whose wife is a pastor, but that is not enough to convince us that Christians will get fair treatment. While Government has decreed that there is freedom of religion and people should be allowed to practice their religion wherever they are, Christians in the North continue to experience persecution. Students in many universities and colleges in the North are also denied places of worship, a favour they enjoy in abundance in the South.  The North may not be bothered, but those of us in the South should be bothered because most of our senators and honourable members of the houses are also Muslims. Many Government largesse come and go and hardly get to Christian neighbourhoods. Laws are sponsored that are aimed principally at curtailing or frustrating Chrisian religious practices. Government, especially at State level often sponsors hundreds of people on Pilgrimages to Mecca with total cost running into billions that could have been used to bring development to the land. Sometimes, some Christians are also sponsored but not in the same realm of numbers that Muslims enjoy.

The fight against Muslim-Muslim ticket is not that the Christian candidate can favour Christians, rather it is a fight that the mixture of both religions will serve as a check for mis adventurism that often alienate adherents of one religion as the other will be compelled to sometimes seek a balance in the distribution of things or in the appointment of other leaders. In a country where things are shared and most people don’t know, we need someone on our side to be there when the bush meat is smoked out of the hole and shared, if not, no one will claim to have hunted the forest and killed all the games, and all of us will be called upon to bear the consequences.

The Muslim-Muslim ticket may just be a political game of numbers, maybe the ruling party does not think Christians are many enough to give them the numbers they want. Let us now show them that our numbers matter and having been sidelined we refuse to stay on the margin of life in Nigeria and that we are a force to be reckoned with. As one notable figure asserts, parties have their own agenda, my agenda is not to vote for a Muslim-Muslim ticket.”  What is your own agenda? Let our agenda not just be to collect 30k and a ‘congo’ or rice. Let us ensure that someone is at the table when dinner is set.