Nigeria today is delicately balanced on a knife-edge. We should for this reason avoid inadvertently (we hope) pushing it off the cliff.
This is why with pivotal, possibly game-changing elections just round the corner, everyone has to behave sensibly and with circumspection. This is why the religious composition of the potential political ticket of the major political parties has to be located within the framework of the desirability of maintaining and indeed reinforcing the union.
Religion and tribe are mere accidents of birth and they ought not to become obstacles to individual enhancement. Nevertheless, the political calculus in our country today is toxic; it has been deliberately contrived across the divides to be so. For this reason we have to take the sensibilities of the system into cognizance.
For a start, the level of voter awareness is very low. Furthermore, the atmosphere has not led to an increase in the level of voter education. On the contrary, the system has been deliberately improvised by a self-serving elite to create and sustain disaffection. The arguments employed by a self-serving elite cannot stand the test of intellectual rigour, of course. Nevertheless, they have come in very useful for a self- perpetuating elite class. This is why developments in the polity must now be anchored on sensibilities for the national good.
It is all very unfortunate, for it was not always like this. Religion has been put on the front-burner to cover up the failings of national elite which has simply failed to deliver the goods. It is to be recalled that when General Yakubu Gowon was Head of State, his second-in-command Akinwale Wey was also a Christian.
In addition the much vaunted Buhari/Idiagbon double act were also fellow Muslims. No one at the time was bothered. Many of the states during the return to civil rule had co-religionists running together on an electable ticket. And then of course there was the landmark Abiola/Kingibe 1993 winning ticket.
Had that election been allowed to stand, we will not be in this sorry state of affairs. A lot of key issues would have been settled and we would have put a lot behind us. The annulment stunted the political development of the nation and it has come with a heavy price-tag.
Nations where the political development had not been similarly stunted have gone from strength to strength. In the United States of America for example, in 1959, the then Senator John F. Kennedy lobbed by a religious bias (his Catholicism) and a regional gap, had to ‘balance’ his ticket by choosing a protestant from the deep southern state of Texas.
Fast – forward decades later. The Clinton/ Al-Gore ticket had neither regional nor religious balance. Both candidates were Baptists, from adjourning states. This is very much like having co-religionists from Akwa-Ibom/Cross River, Edo/Delta or Kano/Kaduna composing a winning ticket.
For the sake of national political development, this is desirable. Unfortunately, this is not the time. Putting together a team of co-religionists will prevent this country from having a sorely needed debate on the real issues.
The real issues are clear. For a start, the terms of trade have turned against us. This makes our situation even more precarious because we are a mono-crop economy. We have stubbornly refused to diversify our productive base. With the anxiety about the consequences of the fall in the price of crude oil, there must now be a vigorous debate on the future direction of the nation’s economy.
A Muslim/Muslim, Christian/Christian ticket will prevent any sensible debate and this will be disastrous for the future prospects of this country. The next elections must be fought on the key issues of poverty reduction, security and so forth and not on religion.