The presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, while meeting with speakers of the ruling party. APC had said that he is married to a Christian. Tinubu said,
“I am a Muslim married to a Christian, a pastor”.
According to the report, Tinubu left Osun State for Abuja to meet with the Speakers from various States of the Federation. The speakers present were; Mudashiru Obasa of Lagos State, Olakunke Oluomo of Ogun State, Idris Garba of Jigawa State, Kennedy Ibeh of Imo State, Eteng Williams of Cross River State, Funminiyi Afuye of Ekiti State, and Oleyelogun Bamidele of Ondo State. Others are Abdulkarim Lawan of Borno, Abdullahi Bawa Wuse of Niger, Ahmed Lawan Mirwa of Yobe, Musa Maigari of Katsina, and Siddi Buba, deputy speaker of Gombe.
Tinubu’s mentioning of being married to a Christian means the issue of a Muslim-Muslim ticket was raised by the speakers. This meeting is coming after his choice of Vice Presidential candidate has been generating controversies among Nigerians. If we say that the Muslim/Muslim ticket of Abiola & Kingibe that was adjudged in the whole of Nigeria & the international community as the best, freest, fairest & most acceptable election & election result in the history of Nigeria won the election because it was 1993 & cannot win in 2023, exactly 30 years after;
Can we then say in all honesty that we have made progress as a nation? Can we say in all honesty that our present rejection rage of a Muslim/Muslim ticket 30 years after the same ticket gave us the best election & election result in our history portray us as a people who have made progress or are sincere with our efforts to make progress in our democracy, politics & governance?
If after 30 years, our religious fault lines have widened, become a permanent source of rancor & violence & have become a permanently visible line threatening to end us as a nation, have we made progress as a people with our religions, or has religion retrograded us to primitivity & to a people incapable of making progress?
