Nigeria is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious people. It has been confirmed that Nigerians are the ninth most religious people in the world. The main religious groups are Christians, Muslims, and African Traditional Religionists. Islamic faith dominates the north-eastern and north-western part of the country but Christianity is dominant in the southwestern, south-eastern and south of the country.
Churches and mosques can be found on almost every popular street in Nigerian towns and cities. Nigerian clergy are among the richest and most influential clergy in the world with the five richest pastors in Africa coming from Nigeria; their net worth ranging from US$10 million to US$150 million. Religion has been a potent force in Nigerian society. It is, therefore, incontrovertible that it must have been a serious factor in every stage of Nigerian elections because at every stage in Nigerian elections, religion has had some input-whether covertly or overtly.
Many have misunderstood the functions of religion by thinking that it is only to contact the supernatural forces, cosmic forces, and intentional reaction to the cosmic forces and expression of the deity. All aspects of society are influenced by religion, for example, marriage, home, business institutions, educational institution and others.
Christians and Muslims dominate the religious sphere of Nigeria’s demographic setting, with neither being in a position of numerical superiority for the other to be a weak minority within the Nigerian federation. But the snag which has led to the dilemma in Nigeria’s supposedly secular state is the existential rivalry between the adherents of the two major religions in public office. The attitude of public office holders vis-à-vis secularity does not really help. Well, religious bias has proved to be another form of poor power distribution in Nigerian federalism.
Nigeria’s federal character principle as enshrined in the Constitution provided for ethnic balancing in the federal arrangement which was formally entrenched in the Constitution in the Second Republic. According to s.14(3) and (4) of 1979 Constitution which has been replicated in the 1999 Constitution (as amended):
‘The composition of the government of the federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in that manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity and also to command national loyalty thereby ensuring that there shall be no dominance of persons from a few states or a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or in any of its agencies.’
‘The composition of the government of a state, local government council or any of the agencies of such government or council be carried out in such a manner as to recognize the diversity of the peoples within its area of authority and the need to promote a sense of belong’
The spirit of this principle was defined in the supplementary clause of the 1979 Constitution as ‘the distinctive desire of the peoples of Nigeria to promote national unity, foster national loyalty and give every citizen of Nigeria a sense of belonging’. Although this was celebrated by some as the ‘cornerstone of ethnic justice and fair government in Nigeria’, the federal principle has also been denounced by others as a euphemism for federal discrimination at best, or geographical apartheid at worst.
The mismanagement of the federal principle resulted in a wide gap between intent and practice. Together with the inability of the principle to accommodate religious differences in the face of religious rivalry between Christians and Muslims, this has done great damage to Nigeria’s supposedly secular status, which is not ideal for the stability of the polity and democratic sustenance. Despite its commitment to freedom of religion, Nigeria’s federal principle covers only ethnic pluralism without taking cognisance of religious pluralism. This has necessitated informal power-sharing mechanisms that are, at best, observed in the breach. Though government removed ethnic and religious data from the 2006 population census, the two variables continue to play a major role in Nigerian consciousness.
However, in democratic elections, political parties’ ideology, programmes, manifestoes, working class interests, and diversity sensitivity, including gender justice, are the ideal factors that should guide voting choice. Religious identity is not an overriding factor. In Nigeria, a political party is not an ecumenical gathering or an interfaith amalgam. Political party system is the vehicle that derives the governance of the affairs of men and society; not an ark to sail the righteous to the heavenly shore. The church, the mosque and the shrine must be kept separate from the affairs of the state.
In 1979, the Christian-Christian ticket of Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) in fielding Awolowo and Chief Philip Umeadi, as a vice-presidential candidate, under a newly adopted presidential system of government (in departure from the parliamentary system of the 1st Republic) was a no-issue; and the integrity of the ticket was, in a way, litigated in the election petition case of Awolowo vs Shagari, up to the Supreme Court of Nigeria. The big issue in that ticket, by a way of recall, was whether Chief Obafemi Awolowo was trustworthy and electable by the Igbo electorate, and whether he did not hate the Igbo, given the roles he played especially during the unfortunate civil war between 1967 and 1970, when he did not only serve as the war-time minister of finance but also served as the vice chairman of the Federal Executive Council under the Federal Military Government of General Yakubu Gowon.
In 1993, the Muslim- Muslim ticket of Chief MKO Abiola’s Social Democratic Party (SDP) was not a big issue. Abiola attended a Christian’s Baptist High School Abeokuta, where, although a Muslim, he compulsorily participated in Christian religious activities; learnt and indeed could sing Christian hymns. The fact that his presidential joint ticket was a Muslim- Muslim one was not a big deal, the real issue being the need to “democratically and electorally” sack from stolen political power, a cunning military dictatorship, unwilling to vacate political power, and thus perpetually manipulating the transition to civil rule programme.
Religion affects the choice of leadership and the voting pattern. The common practice is that if a Christian is a president, a Muslim will automatically become the vice-president. Examples are Obasanjo, as a Christian president, and Atiku, as a Muslim vice-president; Goodluck Jonathan as a Christian president and Sambo Namadi as a Muslim vice-president; and Muhammadu Buhari as a Muslim president with Yemi Osibanjo as a Christian vice-president. Nonetheless, the employment of Christian/Muslim prayer warriors by Muslim and Christians as well as African Traditional Religionists during the election period, in order to win elections, attests to the great influence of religion on Nigerian elections.
Yet, those who have brought our country to its sorry state on its crippled legs are “persons of faith” – Christians and Muslims. Given that many Nigerians are sanctimonious in their ungodliness and pietistic in their immoralities and perversity, what Nigeria needs is leadership redefinition and reinvention. She does not need religion but redemption.
- Oladeji writes from Lagos.