OF recent, Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Ahmed Tinubu, two frontline opposition leaders have stepped out more forcefully to be counted among those who joined in the crusade against the devilish activities of Boko Haram. After the Nyanya, Abuja, bombings and the abduction of over 200 female students at Chibok, Borno State, it was as if by concert, the two leaders were tutored to demonstrate what could be misconstrued as political correctness by lending their voices in very clear terms to support government’s effort to battle the insurgents.
First it was Buhari, who wrote passionately about the need for a united affront against the terrorists. It was the first time in many years that Buhari, a retired military general and former Head of State would provoke many hearts regarding his love for a united Nigeria. He condemned the attackers and showed an unusual understanding of government’s challenges and efforts. He told the insurgents that they were on their own and they cannot divide Nigeria.
Some Nigerians were very happy, because Buhari is not a man of little reputation. He is well respected across the country and his followership is huge. The feeling was that once he begins to come out so forcefully to condemn the activities of Boko Haram, that even the bloodsuckers themselves would soft-pedal. But that was not to be, as they soon returned to Nyanya and killed more people. We later saw the video of Abubakar Shekau, the trader of young maidens, taunting Nigeria and promising to capture more girls. And he did. The most important point here is that Buhari has spoken and whether Boko Haram listens or not is another matter we shall look at later.
Then the Jagaban Borgu did his own pan-Nigerian treatise last week. The first part was equally passionate about Nigeria and why Boko Haram has hit a dead end. Tinubu equally told the insurgents that they cannot divide Nigeria; instead, they shall fail and Nigeria will prevail.
Hear him: They want Christian to curse Muslim and Muslim to curse Christian. They want to pit southerners versus northerners. By the spilling of innocent blood, they hope that we come to blame each other for what they are doing to us. We shall never fall into this fool’s trap and, though they may win the moment, they shall never prevail in their vile scheme. We stand united against this threat to our national existence.
What can be more patriotic? Truth is that it is at moments like this that citizens show their love for the fatherland, irrespective of party affiliations. The United States was one united country against 12/11 and the bonding was unmistakable. You could not say who was a democrat and who was a Republican. But since the assault on Nigeria by the Boko Haram, leading politicians have said unprintable things about what was happening and how to deal with it.
It was heartwarming to read Buhari and Tinubu writing by themselves, one after the other, to publicly denounce the insurgents and lending support to government’s effort. Even the Jonathan administration has hailed Buhari’s call for a united stand against Boko Haram and amply commended the General.
While Buhari restricted himself to condemning the insurgents in his essay, Tinubu, in his second part said he would not refrain from apportioning blames and proffering solutions. For those who keep a close watch on the polity, the things said in the second part are not too different from what the opposition was used to saying, which in summary is that the Jonathan administration had been largely clueless in dealing with the insurgents. Not minding that slight variation in the tempo of the two essays, what is interesting here is that we are seeing leading opposition figures changing tactics as 2015 unfolds. It appears we are seeing Buhari and Tinubu attempting to expand their frontiers to embrace the whole of Nigeria, irrespective of religion and tribe.
Perhaps, we are going to see more of experiments like this, seeing and hearing the two leaders test the tempestuous political waters ahead February 2015. Whoever is giving them coaching lessons has done well, but not timely enough. A lot of water has passed under the bridge and whatever is said and done now, no matter how patriotic could be misconstrued. And that is where the APC has to be careful.
Of late, many APC friendly commentators have expended a lot of ink trying to explain the potentials in a Buhari/Tinubu joint ticket. They have also attempted to explain how harmless a Muslim/Muslim ticket would be. Unfortunately for them, it is one of their own, Mr. Femi Fanikayode who volleyed the debate into the national arena and sustained it there. A lot of Nigerians would rather look at other factors, like age and character as being critical for assessing the next presidential aspirants.
But now that the debate is out there, it is worth talking about. It is a fact that religion is an issue, a big one at that. Therefore, a Muslim/Muslim ticket in 2015 if not carefully analysed and delivered could be another source of anxiety and might lead voters to react with suspicion.
This is not the best of times to exacerbate religious hysteria in the polity. Boko Haram has done enough damage to put the country on this dangerous edge. It is the responsibility of political leaders to deliberately steer away from issues and discourses that are religiously contentious. When some governors made so much noise about introducing aspects of the Sharia legal system in their states during the era of president Obasanjo, they were so sure that that was the most politically correct thing to do. They were largely unmindful of the possibility of fundamentalist elements desiring to extend the frontiers of Sharia at a later date. Now that Boko Haram is here, the political class has to demonstrate discretion by not behaving as if this were not a plural society.
What is mostly cited as an example in this debate is the Abiola/Kingibe ticket of 1993, which produced one of the best results in Nigeria’s political history. It was a Muslim/Muslim ticket, but majority of Nigerians did not care because there were yet no threats by any religion to lord it over the other. At that time, Nigeria was under a military government and most of the expressions seen and heard under this democracy could not have survived then. We had one federal government that was operated by the rules of the military without a constitution. Religion was not a major item of governance then.
The personalities of Abiola and Kingibe were a factor that helped the people to look beyond religion in accepting them. These were two Nigerians that were at home everywhere. MKO was at home with everybody and every part of the country. He spent his money generously to promote issues that appealed to all religions. Nigerians then had no reason to be suspicious of a Muslim/Muslim ticket.
Today, things are rather different. The political class has divided and fractured the polity. They are the ones responsible for expanding the differences and dividing the polity. They are the ones who ganged up to write the constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which originally endorsed a rotational presidency between North and South, allegedly. They are the ones who later changed it when Umaru Yar’adua died. But they are not sincere enough to spell it out in the Constitution of the Federal Republic.
2011 was a major turning point in the politics of Nigeria. We saw gang-ups that threatened to divide the country between North and South. It did not work, but it did a lot of damage to political cohesion. There were threats to cause mayhem and that manifested in post-election violence at some centres in the North. It is not unlikely that Boko Haram and other undesirable elements took advantage of the political divide to ply their own trade, which at first got the tacit endorsement of some stakeholders. Others were largely indifferent, until now that the heat is burning all of us.
In preparing for 2015, politicians must look well before they leap, because the fire next time could be all consuming. That is why we are saying we do not need to elevate religiosity above other important factors. In terms of experience, Buhari has sufficient knowledge to stabilize the polity. As military leader in 1983, fellow Nigerians did not reckon with him in terms of his religious persuasion. We did not care; what we saw and were interested in was his high level of discipline, a no-nonsense leader who was ready to show the way out of the despondency of the Second Republic. And he tried his best.
The APC has to juggle the cards very well and if convinced that a Muslim/Muslim ticket would do the magic for the party in 2015, so be it. Others would meet them in ‘battlefield’ with their own winning streak. The point is that it must not be by do or die; and nobody should incite anybody to cause trouble. The conversation should be more about capacity and the integrity of those on the ballot. The people will decide the rest.
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