YESTERDAY’S formal presentation of Senator Kashim Shettima as the running mate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, presented the standard-bearer another opportunity to shed light on why he made that choice. The dust raised over his choice has yet to settle since he picked Shettima on July 10.

Some of his political opponents and even friends perceive his choice as audacious. Really? What is the big deal in Tinubu being a Muslim and his running mate also of the same faith? He is virtually being skinned alive politically today any corner he turns to because he chose a fellow Muslim and not a Christian as his running mate. Nobody is talking about him not picking an atheist or an animist or a traditionalist, for that matter, as his running mate. Nor about Shettima’s capability.

Why? Is it that competency no longer counts? Is it that people of no faith are not eligible to be presidential running mates? Or is it that they are not Nigerians who are also covered by the same provisions of the Constitution which some people are today throwing at Tinubu. Lest we forget, the Constitution, which is our organic law, does not discriminate against any Nigerian, no matter his faith, from becoming the nation’s leader.

What it frowns at is denying any Nigerian from holding leadership position on the basis of his ethnic nationality. The Constitution is clear on this provision. It does not rate faith above ethnicity, but that is not to say that it does not warn against religious discrimination. What it did not do is to raise religion to the height that some people have taken it to because of politics.

The framers of the Constitution knew the dangers of playing up religion and that is why they warned in Section 10 of it that: The government of the federation or of a state shall not adopt any religion as state religion. Nigeria is a secular state with a multiplicity of faith but the well known two are Islam and Christianity. We are lucky that those who profess other faith are not religious fundamentalists as some of us who pride ourselves as good Christians and Muslims are.

If they were, this country will not be at ease today. I will not be saying anything strange if I submit that most of the problems we face today are caused by either those who are Muslims or Christians. Look around you and see those accused of one crime or the other. Is it corruption? Drug trafficking? Bank fraud? Robbery? Kidnapping? Banditry and terrorism? You name it; those involved are usually people of faith. If we really imbibe the teachings of our faith will Nigeria be in a mess today?

Our problem is not Muslim-Muslim or Christian-Christian or Muslim-Christian ticket. Our problem is us as a people. We wear our faith on our faces and as a badge of honour without following its tenets. We want to be seen as good Christians and good Muslims clutching our Bible and Quran in public when the thoughts of our hearts are evil. The devil laughs when he sees us behaving like that. The holy books teach us to flee from the devil and he will flee from us, but many of us choose to sit with him when it pays us to do so.

It is when their aspirations are not met that some politicians play the religion card as they are now doing with the Muslim-Muslim ticket. Unfortunately, many who know next to nothing about politics have joined them in crucifying Tinubu for picking a fellow Muslim as his running mate. Did they stop to ask themselves what other choice Tinubu has, if he wants to win the 2023 presidential election, before descending on him for going that route?

Elections are about numbers. It is either you have or do not have them. The paramount consideration for Tinubu in making his choice is how do I win the election? Is it with a Muslim or Christian running mate? The numbers available and those in control of the figures pointed him in the direction to go.

By so doing, he did not breach Section 14 of the Constitution which speaks of principles of democracy and social justice. Section 14 (3) stipulates that the government of the federation shall be composed in a manner to reflect the federal character of Nigeria, promote national duty and also command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or in any of its agencies.

Tinubu has not done anything to offend this provision. It will therefore amount to standing logic on its head for some legal pundits to accuse him of doing so. They are lying with the Constitution. But thank God we all have access to the document.

Not a Sterling act (1)

It prides itself in being a one-customer bank. This is its payoff line which it finds difficult to live up to. I found this out the hard way. Since June 1, I have been trying to get Sterling Bank to refund the N7000 debited from my account when I bought petrol at an outlet. The retailer was not credited. So, I had to cough out another N7000. Meaning that I was debited N14,000 for a N7000 transaction done through PoS (Point-of-Sale).

In order to get back my money, I have become a regular caller at the Sterling Bank branch at Matori where I lodged a complaint on June 2. Since then, it has been one story or the other. The latest is that the merchant, who incidentally uses a Sterling PoS, has refused to make the transaction receipt available so that my account can be credited. Is that my fault? Does the bank not have control over its PoS agents? Eventually, this matter may have to be resolved by the central bank. Did I hear you ask: so wa ju N7000 lo ni? Ko juu lo! All I need is my money.

It was a tricky issue which required all his skills to tackle. It took him long days and nights to arrive at a final decision. Even at that, the noise over his pick is still deafening as I write this four days after he made his choice. Ordinarily, it should not be a matter over which to break bones.

But, considering the level to which we have sunk as a nation, it has become one. Picking a running mate for a presidential candidate, whether a Muslim or a Christian, should be a walk in the park. Just as it used to be in the past. Painfully, it is no longer so. What should be an easy and simple task has been made hard and complex.

In the past, even before a candidate emerges, he already knows who his running mate is, or a faint idea of who that person will be. From months of interaction and working together, the candidate would have formed opinion about the person and made up his mind about him. As soon as he becomes the candidate, he wastes no time in naming his running mate.

That was the era of a political culture under which competence, capability, conviction and courage held sway. It was when politics was played without recourse to region and religion. The twin issues of ethnicity and faith were not allowed to dominate the political space as they now do. Our faith and ethnic nationality are now used as bargaining chips for power.

Clergymen and monarchs have turned their places of worship and palaces into mini party headquarters where serious political decisions are taking. Key political players court them because of their new found power of galvanising support for the parties they favour. It is a matter of ‘you scratch my back, I scratch your back’.

Suddenly, a country where merit, competence and ability were celebrated became one where the language you speak and the faith you profess were all you needed to become somebody. It is not the fault of the clergy and the monarchy, but a collective fault. When things started degenerating, we did nothing to stem the slide at all levels and now we are at the mercy of religious bigots.

Indeed, religion was never an issue in this country. Perhaps, with the exception of those early days when the missionaries tried to divide us by setting up schools mainly for people of their own faith and converting others, even against their own will, before admitting them. Since those days, we have overcome the religion challenge until the Islamic sect, better known as Boko Haram, burst on the scene. Though Boko Haram is a recent thing, the damage it has done to our psyche is unquantifiable.

Our recourse to religion politics did not start with Boko Haram, though. It started in 1993 when Boko Haram was not in existence. Christendom rose against the Muslim-Muslim ticket of M.K.O Abiola and Babagana Kingibe, describing it as not sellable. The military, an apolitical institution known to be blind to issues of region and religion worldwide, led us down the slippery path when it opposed that Muslim-Muslim ticket, if we are to believe former military leader Ibrahim Babangida.

Almost 30 years after, Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima are reenacting the Muslim-Muslim ticket on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the stiff objection of again, Christendom and their Muslim collaborators. Their argument is that in a country of over 200 million people, the party should have found a Christian to be Tinubu’s running mate. It is Tinubu’s prerogative to choose whoever he prefers as his running mate.

He cannot be dictated to on that. But in taking his decision, he must consider many factors, one of which I concede, is religion. But the most important factors are the ability and electoral value of his running mate, and not where he comes from or the faith he professes. Tinubu is in the race to win and to ensure his victory, he has to go for a running mate that will boost his chances at the poll. He cannot opt for a liability as this column wrote on June 16.

Political calculation informed Tinubu’s choice and not what some perceive as disdain for the Christian faith. After all, if he is elected, he will be the president of all and not of one faith or the other. Many condemning his choice would have taken similar action if they were in his shoes. How can a man who is married to a devout Christian and a Pastor to boot be intolerant of other religions?

Having made his choice, Tinubu has a lot of work to do to pacify those hurt. There is still time for him to do so before the election and explain that his choice was not a slight on Christians and assure them of a huge role in his administration if elected. This is a game of give and take and not a matter of life and death.

But at the end of the day, Tinubu may yet be credited for looking ahead in time with this Muslim-Muslim ticket.

GROWING up as a child under my father, Sadiku Okhifo Ogienagbon, who died on May 27 was tough. Though he was a father with a heart of gold, he took no nonsense from his children. Indeed, he brooked no nonsense from anybody. He was not easily intimidated nor awed by others no matter how big they were.

He respected constituted authority though. I still remember that day some 40 years ago at the Ikeja GRA Praying Ground. I was in his Datsun 120 car when a big man in a Mercedes Benz car parked by my side and enquired: “where’s the owner of this car?”

“He is on the field praying”, I answered. “Please, call him”. Without another word, I left to get my dad, leaving my kid brother that I was tending to, behind.

My father followed me swiftly to the car and on sighting the chauffeur- driven man, who turned out to be his MD, greeted him thus: “Good morning sir”. It was the first time in my life that I would see him defer to another man in that manner.

To everything the man said, my father always concluded his response with ‘sir’. On being informed that the prayers had been concluded, Mr Giwa-Amu, then Managing Director of Cadbury drove off, apparently in search of another praying ground to observe the Eid prayers.

I recall this encounter with nostalgia as another Eid-El-Kabir (the Muslim festival of sacrifice) draws near. Giwa-Amu was to play a huge role in my father’s career growth at Cadbury, not because they were from the same state but because he found S.O., as he called my dad, diligent. Baba, as we his children called him was a workaholic. He worked as if he was going to die the next day.

Everyday he lived, he believed, was a bonus. He was not afraid of death, but the feeling of death always gnawed at the back of his mind because his father died young. He was prepared to go early too, if that was his fate. So, everything he did, every word he spoke to me was laced with this piece of advice: “you better sit up Lawal, you may not see me around for long”.

That was when my head was high up in the air. I was too stubborn and not studious enough for my father’s liking. As his first child, just as he was of his own father, his expectations of me were high. “You must set the pace for your siblings and you can only do that by facing your studies. But here you are hiding your report card from me because you did not do well. What is happening to you? You were not like this in primary school. If I die now, you will suffer”.

Eventually, he did not die young. I believe that my dad lived long because he was not destined to die young. My belief was reinforced by a robbery attack on him in 1982. He was driving into his Ikeja home when robbers opened fire on him at point blank range. They left him drenched in a pool of his blood as they attempted to escape with the bullet-ridden Peugeot 504 Estate Wagon.

They abandoned the car after it got stuck in a ditch just down the street, a stone’s throw from our house and fled on foot. As shouts of “awon ole ni, awon ole ni, won ti yin Baba Lawal nibon”, (it is robbers, it is robbers, they have shot Lawal’s father) rent the air, people trooped out of their houses, as it was still dusk, to find my father on the ground moaning. With no other vehicle readily available, he was conveyed in his abandoned car to the hospital where doctors battled to save his life.

The doctors removed several pellets from his body and said others in highly sensitive areas would have to remain where they were because removing them would be risky. After his discharge from the hospital, he left for the village where people said “pellets can be called out through traditional means”. Those who witnessed it, claimed that some pellets were also removed that way. Despite that, he still carried pellets in his body till he died at the age of 89.

The end came 40 years after in the early hours of May 27. He died in his Alagbole near Lagos home and was buried in Imiokono Jagbe, Edo State, on May 28. He was the oldest man in Imiokono where he was installed the Odionwele six years ago. As we gather in Imiokono to celebrate the 40th day Firdaus and final funeral rites of our patriarch between July 4 and 5, I remember a father, who touched many lives and did everything for his children, especially me.

My father saw me through thick and thin. He wanted me to turn out well because after his death, the headship of the family will fall on me. I thank God that I became closer to him in his last days on earth. How can I ever forget you, Baba. You were a father in a million. My siblings and I, your grandchildren and great grandchildren were lucky to have had you. Adieu, the husband of Aisetu.

Their Lordships were livid and they did not mask their anger. It was something that they had kept to themselves for long, waiting and hoping that things would be better. Perhaps, things will get better now that they have exploded. As Justices of the Supreme Court, they sit at the apex of the Judiciary. It is a position that many judges crave, but only a few attain.

As the chosen ones, they know that much is expected of them because much will be given to them. They believe that they are fulfilling their own part of the bargain, but no corresponding response from the government. To them, such arrangement is faulty; the chicken should not come before the egg, but the other way round. Here they are, giving of their best when they are not provided with the best.

‘What can we do to draw attention to our plight?’ They must have asked themselves, knowing full well that it is a taboo for people in their position to go public with their case like other class of workers. Judges are conservative by nature and none is moreso than Justices of the Supreme Court. Their rules of engagement are full of many ‘thou shall not…’ and one of these is that they must maintain sealed lips in good and bad times.

This is to say that judges must be seen and not heard. But what should a judge do when he is not provided with the working tools that he requires? Keep quiet and suffer in silence or buck the system? Their Lordships went for the latter and opened a Pandora’s box. Through their letter of protest to their brother-judge, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, the Justices reeled out their complaint. All is not well with the highest court in the land, they told him as if he did not know.

The thrust of their complaint borders on poor welfare and dearth of working tools. Some of their grievances are non-replacement of bad vehicles, epileptic power supply at the Supreme Court, lack of drugs at the court’s clinic, sudden stoppage of foreign workshops and trainings, no provision of qualified legal assistants and lack of Internet facilities. The list is endless. It was a shocking revelation to many who thought everything was well inside there when the matter hit public domain.

‘If things are this bad at the Supreme Court, how will they be at the lower courts?’ People wondered. It was bad publicity for the apex court and CJ Muhammad is not happy with his fellow Justices for washing their dirty linen in public. If he were not the CJ, won’t he have signed the petition too? He should not think that he is insulated from the court’s larger problems which were made public by his colleagues. He should be grateful to them for taking that step, no matter how bad he may feel about it.

His reaction on Tuesday was a reflection of how he feels about it all. The CJN reminded his colleagues that judges everywhere are to be seen and not heard, accusing them of doing something “akin to dancing naked at the market square with the ripple effect of the said letter”. With due respect, he seemed to miss the point there. His Lordship should not see this as a personal matter between him and his colleagues, but something that touches on their collective interest.

As CJN, he should appreciate that such complaints would be addressed to him because he wears two caps. First, he is a manager and then, an arbiter like his protesting colleagues. His duty is to take the complaint up with the appropriate authority so that it can be properly addressed. It is not in any one’s interest for the Supreme Court to work at cross purpose, not now and certainly not in the future. It is better for the Justices to remain united and not be divided by the petition. And the CJN must lead in this regard. May the matter end well.

Salute to bravery

FORTY-SIX year-old Ejiro Otarigbo won the people’s heart with his heroic act of driving a burning fuel tanker from a populated area to the bank of a river in Delta State on June 10 to avert a disaster. For 15 minutes, he manoeuvred his way through traffic to get to the bank of Agbarho River where he eventually jumped out of the burning tanker. It takes a lionheart to do what Otarigbo did. Any other driver would have long jumped out of the tanker to save his own life, leaving the hundreds or even thousands of others on the road that day, to their own fate.

Otarigbo put his own life at risk to save others. He should be celebrated by his country for his calm disposition in skilfully driving the tanker through heavy traffic and safely steering it into the riverbank. His action showed rare courage in the face of danger, just the same way an illegal Malian immigrant climbed the balconies of a highrise Paris apartment in 2018 to save a boy from falling from the fourth floor. The French government immediately honoured him, and offered him a job and the country’s citizenship. This is how it should be.

Otarigbo deserves that kind of honour and more. His feat should not go unrecognised by the Federal Government. Recognising him will encourage other Nigerians to rise above self and be of help and service to others always no matter the inherent danger. As this hero said in a newspaper interview, “whatever situation you find yourself in, make the best of it. I took that decision because I don’t want to be described as a ‘killer’. I don’t want to be called a name that is not mine”. How many of us think that way?

What a name!

Another word has entered the nation’s political lexicon. The word, placeholder, was used by a paper to describe the running mate of All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. What makes Alhaji Kabiru Masari a placeholder when Tinubu did not call him that? Masari’s name was duly submitted before the expiration of the June 17 deadline for doing so. Just because it was done quietly, the paper tagged Masari a ‘placeholder’.

In a fitting response, Tinubu’s media aide Tunde Rahman said his principal followed the law in submitting Masari’s name. The running mate, he added, is at liberty to withdraw, if he so wishes within the timeframe allowed by the electoral umpire. So, why the fuss?

The burning national issue today is who becomes the running mates of the presidential candidates of the two leading parties. The national discourse became intense after Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s emergence as the standard-bearer of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). It is as if the whole country was waiting for him to pick his party’s ticket so as to raise the tone of the debate. Is it a debate, as such?

In the true sense of it, it is not. At the same time, it cannot be called noise of the market place. Call it the ventillation of a wish, and you may not be wrong. The wish of people who feel strongly that the candidates and their running mates must not be of the same faith. Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar is the presidential candidate of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He is a Muslim like Tinubu. The two of them are in the race with 15 others, who cut across the Islamic and Christian faith.

So, voters who believe that the contestants must be from a  particular faith have a large pool to pick from. Let us look at the other candidates and the faith they profess. Former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) is a Christian. Former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) – Muslim; Christopher Imumolen, Accord Party (AP)- Christian; Hamza Al-Mustapha, Action Alliance (AA) – Muslim; Omoyele Sowore, African Action Congress (AAC) – Christian; Dumebi Kachikwu, African Democratic Congress (ADC) – Christian; Peter Umeadi, All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) – Christian; Yusuf Dantalle, Allied Peoples Movement (APM) – Muslim.

Yabagi Sani, Action Democratic Party (ADP) – Muslim; Okwudili Nwa-Anyadike, National Rescue Mission (NRM) – Christian; Kola Abiola, Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) – Muslim, Adewole Adebayo, Social Democratic Party (SDP) – Christian; Malik Ado-Ibrahim, Young Peoples Party (YPP) – Muslim; Dan Nwanyanwu, Zenith Democratic Alliance (ZDA) – Christian; and Sunday Adenuga, Boot Party (BP) – Christian.

From this wide field, the electorate are free to make their choice. Those who think that they will be better off with a Christian as the president are free to vote for such a candidate in the February 23, 2023 election. Those who prefer to go with a Muslim are not also inhibited from making that choice. We are faced with this faith issue in the forthcoming election because of the way we have taken religion in our daily life. We tend to see issues from the myopic prism of not only religion, but also region.

We believe that only people of our faith and ethnic nationality can be of benefit to us. We have jettisoned competence on the altars of religion and region. This is highly unfortunate. Where we come from and the God we serve have now come to determine us as a people. Are we no longer serving one God, whether as Muslims or Christians?

In a country of over 200 million people where talents abound, thoughts, ideas and the innate qualities of man to bring out the best in him, even in the harshest of conditions, have been thrown overboard for these twin issues of religion and region which have been dividing us as a people. Yet, as a nation, we crave development.

How can our country grow, if we continue to think in terms of religion and region? Who says a Muslim or a Christian must be the President or Vice-President? Can’t a traditionalist or an atheist, for that matter, also aspire to lead the country if they have what it takes to do so? At this juncture of our life – Nigeria will be 62 on October 1 – we should be looking for capable hands to lead the country, whether they are believers or not; Igbo, Yoruba or Fulani. In the past 61 years, we have had either a Muslim or a Christian as our leader, either in agbada or khaki, but what have we got to show for this leadership?

Nothing! Many of them left the nation high and dry. This is why till today, we are still searching for a true leader who will take us out of the woods. We should not spoil the search with religion or region. We have an opportunity of a lifetime to make the right decision in next year’s election. Before us are 17 candidates seeking to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023. Our civic duty is to sift the wheat from the chaff. Little wonder that bookmakers have reduced the contest to a two-horse race between Tinubu and Atiku. Indeed, the duo have political antecedents which others cannot boast of.

But they cannot run alone; they have to do so with running mates, who must be known by tomorrow to fulfil a vital component of the race. If they fail to meet the deadline, they will be disqualified from running. No serious candidate will want to be disqualified at this stage after coming this far. Tinubu and Atiku are in a dilemma over picking a running mate within the short time left for them to do so.

They are confronted with many choices, with input from several sources. However, they have the last say on the matter. What should engage their minds is the quality of their choice and not that person’s religion or the region he comes from. Most importantly will be the person’s electoral value. Does he have what it takes, that is the numbers, to help the candidate win the election?

A running mate is what and who he is; he is not the candidate. He is running as an appendage of the candidate and only becomes a face, if the candidate wins. That is when he becomes vice-president-elect on the strength of his principal’s election. Tinubu should not allow himself to be pushed to pick a liability as his running mate on the grounds of religion. As a strategist and thinker, I trust him to make the right choice.

I am not saying that religion does not matter. It does; but it is  not all that is required to be a running mate. Whether a Muslim-Muslim, or Christian-Christian, or Muslim-Christian ticket, all the people are yearning for is a running mate that can complement the candidate and make a good team in government, if they win.

Tinubu cannot afford to make any mistakes now that he is looking the State House right in front of him, as someone put it on Tuesday. Truly, numbers, faith and ability count in electoral matters, but as Asiwaju well knows, ability trumps all others. He should go for the man with the ability to do the job. May God guide him aright.

Even those that never gave Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu a chance started calling the race for him early. As late as it was that Tuesday night, they saw the handwriting on the wall when some top contenders started stepping down for the Jagaban Borgu. From that point, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary was going to be a no contest.

That was indeed what happened. Elsewhere in the world, those still in the race would have thrown in the towel. But the 13 remaining contenders refused to do the needful because of pride. As we all know, pride goes before a fall. They fell like a pack of cards as they trailed distantly behind Asiwaju in the race.

They failed to realise that pride has no place in electoral contests. It is popularity and capability that count. These attributes are the determinants of whether you have what it takes to win or not. Asiwaju is not only popular, but also capable as he showed in his governance of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007. He squeezed water out of stone as he raised the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR) from a paltry N600 million monthly. The IGR has now shot up to N51 billion and is still growing.

That was bringing economic ingenuity to bear on the resources of the state. The foundation he laid then is being built upon by his successors. This is why Lagos remains the leader among the 36 states in all parameters of development. If Tinubu can do that in a small microcosm of Nigeria like Lagos, shouldn’t he be given the chance to replicate that at the national level? This has been his appeal and what drove him to throw his hat in the presidential ring.

Tinubu is not a poor man, by any standard. He was not poor before he became governor in 1999. He made his money in the private sector, where he rose to be the Treasurer of multinational oil firm Mobil. He parleyed his wealth into many causes. He was first and foremost a philanthropist. His philanthtopic gestures are all over the place, with many of the beneficiaries not even knowing their benefactor. Tinubu also used his wealth to promote democracy.

In the Abacha days, he was the sole financier of the pro-democracy groups abroad which pushed for the revalidation of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by the late Bashorun MKO Abiola but annulled by former military president Ibrahim Babangida. He was especially pained by the annulment because he was a member of the National Assembly under the diarchical arrangement that was in place before the June 12 election. The June 12 election was to usher the country into full blown democracy after the exit of the Babangida junta which served as the executive arm of government at the federal level.

The annulment, in a matter of time, sounded the death knell of the fledgling Third Republic. After Babangida was forced to in his words ‘step aside’ for the late Ernest Shonekan-led interim government in August 1993, the late Gen Sani Abacha bade his time before sacking that lame duck administration in November of the same year. He threw away the baby and the bath water as he demolished all democratic structures at the local, state and federal levels. Tinubu would not take none of that. For his derring-do, he became a wanted man, like many others.

He fled into exile and became part of the pro-democracy movement which became a thorn in the flesh of the Abacha junta. Tinubu paid a heavy price for his activism. Abacha’s death in 1998 changed the course of the nation’s history and people like Tinubu reaped the fruits of their labour.

His quest for presidential power did not, however, go unchallenged. Surprisingly, his loyalists were in the vanguard of those opposed to his bid. That is now history.

Again, surprise of all surprises. Some of these loyalists were to help him in the first step to achieve his lifelong ambition of being president. Emi na fe di President (I want to be President too), as he once put it in Yoruba. He scaled the first hurdle yesterday when he was declared winner of his party’s presidential primary in Abuja. It was a landslide victory as he polled 1,271 of the 2,190  valid votes cast by delegates. 2,203 delegates were at the special convention where the primary was held but 13 votes were voided.

The stage is set for Tinubu to do battle with his friend and associate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the 16 other parties’ standards-bearer in next year’s presidential election. Before this epic battle is the big challenge of picking his runningmate. Ever the astute politician, Asiwaju must have thought this through before he won his party’s ticket. But he cannot discountenance the many interests that would want to have a say also in who his pick is.

Whoever that person is must be one that can add value to the ticket and strengthen the APC brand, which  has been weakened in the past seven years of the party running the country. Tinubu and APC have a lot to do to redeem the party’s image before the 2023 elections. It is not going to be a walkover for Tinubu at the poll, just as it was for him at the primary because of how APC has managed national affairs since it wrested power from PDP in 2015.

Being the strong character, strategist, thinker and doer  that he is, Tinubu can change the narrative and help APC back to its feet and make it once again the beloved party of a people whose support brought it to power seven years ago. He has got his party’s mandate, but the greater one lies ahead – the people’s mandate which will put in his hands the power to enable him make our country work again. The task is onerous, but I trust that you are ready to roll up your sleeves from day one to make a difference. This is wishing you all the best.

What is consensus? The question looks simple and straightforward, but in political circles, consensus has become a dreadful word in the contestation for the highest office in the land. Consensus means what it means. It is when two or more people agree on something.

Such an agreement brings about amity in the peaceful resolution of the issue in contention. It brings about a win-win situation for all because everybody agreed on the outcome of the matter. Consensus is not easy to forge though because of varied interests. Why? People tend to see things from different perspectives. It is this difference in outlook and thinking that makes politics tick.

We have seen this manifest in the countdown to the 2023 elections. The political scene is agog, as various interests contend for elective offices. By far, the jostle for the Presidency is the highpoint of it all. The parties have since initiated moves to pick their standard-bearers for the presidential election slated for February next year. The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) have picked their own candiadates.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who ran on PDP’s platform in 2019, with Peter Obi as his runningmate is back as the party’s candidate. Interestingly, Obi is no longer with Atiku. He has picked LP’s ticket as its candidate. Other parties are in the process of doing the same thing. By now, the issue would have been long settled, if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had not extended the deadline for parties’ primaries.

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) cashed in on the situation to shift its presidential primaries from May 29 -June 1 to June 6 – 8. Although, the parties claimed that the extension was at their instance, political pundits think otherwise. They believe that INEC extended the deadline to favour APC. Be that as it may, the ruling party is still ruing how it should pick its candidate. Should it be by direct, indirect or consensus option as provided for in the Electoral Act? Another thorny issue facing the party is where its candidate should come from. North or South?

PDP threw its ticket open and Atiku, who is from the North won it on May 29.

The Abdullahi Adamu-led APC seems to be in a quandary about the mode of its primaries. With no fewer than 25 aspirants set to battle for its ticket, the party’s hands are full. How does it manage such a large number of contenders for a single ticket without acrimony? Well, that is its headache! It is not that it did not try to curtail the number from the outset, but it seemed the mechanism it put in place did not work. Rather than deter aspirants, the high cost of its nomination forms, N100 million, seemed to have propelled them to join the race.

Then, the party tried to be clever by half by inserting a condition in the forms, which required aspirants to sign an undated withdrawal letter. It is now clear why it did that, with President Muhammadu Buhari, the party Leader, talking of exercising his right to choose his successor as some APC governors did in their states. A case of what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander! What the President wants to do is to get all the other aspirants to step down for the person he prefers. Who is that person?

Only the President knows. He has known that person for long as he said in a television interview that he was keeping his choice close to his chest so that the person did not come to harm. The President, like every other party member, has the right to support any aspirant. Though as the party’s Leader, his preferred aspirant may end up carrying the day as no member would want to go against his choice. But, why did he wait this long before coming out categorically to ask that he be allowed to pick his successor?

If he had pointed the party towards the person’s direction before now, perhaps things would not have come to a head. After buying forms for N100 million and logging thousands of kilometres on the road, will it be appropriate to tell an aspirant offhandedly at this stage to withdraw from the race because the President has a preferred candidate? The party should think things through before it acts. It should also remember that it does not have the last say on this matter if it acts in brèach of the Electoral Act and INEC Guidelines. APC must tread gingerly because whatever it does may end up being seen as imposition and not consensus

The Act is clear and succinct on how a consensus candidate can emerge. Section 84 (9) states: A political party that adopts a consensus candidate shall secure a written consent of all cleared aspirants for the position, including their voluntary withdrawal from the race and their endorsement of the consensus candidate. The law warns that where the party cannot secure the buy-in of all the cleared aspirants for the purpose of a consensus candidate, it shall resort to the use of either direct or indirect primaries.

What happens if all the ‘cleared’ aspirants do not agree on  a consensus candidate? I suspect that to avoid that the party may not clear recalcitrant aspirants for the primaries. With some governors already saying that they would go with the President, the party will enjoy their support if it axes such aspirants. Where will all this leave APC? It may come out the worst for it at the polls. It is sad that APC which was perceived as a the poster-boy of our democracy is the one involved in this kind of misadventure.

The President had all the time in the world to pick his successor and let the world know who that person is. He slept on that right and now that the contenders are ready for battle, he wants to pull the chestnut out of fire. There is danger ahead for APC. The President and the party are unwittingly setting the stage for acrimony, which this column cautioned against last week. To avoid a fractious party ahead of the elections, the primaries should be allowed to hold as scheduled, with the best candidate picking the presidential ticket.

The price for flouting the law is heavy. According to Section 84 (13), where a political party fails to comply with the provisions of this Act in the conduct of its primaries, its candidate for election shall not be included in the election for the particular position in issue. Is APC ready for this?  A word, they say, is enough for the wise.

Islam is a religion of peace. So, we were taught in school. Ahmadiyya College, now known as Anwar-ul Islam College, Agege, Lagos, though founded by Muslims did not place premium on religion. The school was and is still open to Christians and Muslims. Of course, as a Muslim school, Islamic Religious Knowledge (IRK) and Arabic were taught.

Arabic was not a compulsory subject. Just as Yoruba and French were not compulsory. But because of the adventurous nature of children, we sampled all the subjects. It was pure joy to see Christians and Muslims alike reciting alif, ba, ta, sa… the Arabic alphabets like the a, b, c… that we first learnt in primary school.

Religion? Who cared about that. It was a non-issue among us and our teachers led by example in that regard. A pupil was treated based on his character and not his religion or ethnicity. If in a secondary school, pupils could live together harmoniously despite professing different faith, it should be expected that things would be better in a higher institution, except we are saying we are sliding backwards.

In the larger society too, religion and ethnicity were no issues. Muslims and Christians,  Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba lived together,  worked together, played together and ate together. All of a sudden, things changed. We no longer saw ourselves as brothers and sisters. We began to see ourselves as enemies and everybody kept to him or herself.

This was where societal fabric began to tear. Parents warned their children against going to their neighbours’ houses. This was something that was not common then.Common, how? It was not even there. It was unheard of for a parent to do such a thing when people lived together as one big family. Now, we are divided by our faith, which ironically should be a binding factor.

Christianity and Islam share many things in common. Both religions believe in the sanctity of human life and warn against taking a person’s life for no just reason. A life for a life, the religions say. Meaning anybody who kills a person without justification must pay with his own life. This is different from the mosaic law of an eye for an eye. A life can only be taken for a crime committed and for which the perpetrator has been found liable.

In effect, the person must have undergone trial and be availed of every opportunity to defend himself. But as men some of us like to play god. We believe that by so doing we are more pious than others. Faith is not a show thing, it is a heart and mind thing. No wonder, the scripture says man looks at the outward appearance, God looks at the heart. Fighting for God does not make you holier than the other person if it is not for a just cause. Jihad is not waged for the sake of it, it is waged to build a better society.

In his days, the Prophet waged Jihad against idolaters and the enemies of Islam. A good Muslim can also wage an internal Jihad to make himself a better person. It is not Jihad to kill someone in the name of Allah because he said or did something that is wrong. That is criminality. A man cannot be the complainant, the prosecutor and the judge in his own case. Our society has since moved beyond that stage.

Those who killed Deborah Emmanuel were not doing Allah’s bidding. They were only consumed by their belief that by so doing, they were waging a war that will earn them paradise in the hereafter! To be consumed by religion is a pitiable thing. When people carry religion too far, society is at risk. We have seen not once, not twice, but on several occasions, what religious crisis can cause. Villages and properties were destroyed and people maimed and killed on the flimsy ground of doing things which ordinarily should not attract any attention.

Why was Deborah killed? What did she say about the Prophet to have earned her that kind of death – stoning and burning in full public glare? The so-called devotees who carried out that dastardly act should go and read the Quran and Hadiths again. When can a Muslim woman be publicly stoned or flogged? It is when she is found to have committed adultery. Deborah was not a Muslim nor did she subscribe to the Islamic law of Sharia.

She was killed for speaking out against the abuse of a forum created for the advancement of learning at the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto. When did it become a crime to express one’s view, no matter how objectionable it may be to others – and in a higher institution, for that matter. What kind of citadel of learning is that where the other view cannot be tolerated? What kind of teaching is going on there? The teachers must share part of the blame for what those students did.

What happened in Sokoto on May 12 is horrendous and heartwrenching. It is unfortunate and sad. It shows that things have gone out of control in the country. The killers of Deborah must not go scot-free. It is written in all the holy books that those who kill for no just reason must be killed. They should get their just deserts after their day in court. My heart goes out to the Emmanuels and may their daughter find rest in the Lord’s bosom.