Tag: Raji Fashola

Getting to know how many we are in Nigeria is a big problem. Even after many head counts we still cannot agree on the true size of our population. Not even the Federal Government can say confidently the number of people occupying this vast expanse of land called Nigeria. What a shame.

While the importance of an accurate census cannot be overemphasized, suffice to say that census is very crucial to any effective programme planning and implementation, especially by the government.

Why we seem incapable of getting our population census right beats one’s imagination. And while several reasons have been adduced for this failure, the tying of resource allocation to states and local governments to the size of their population has been a big hindrance to accurate census. States and local governments are encouraged by this to inflate their population in order to get more resources from the federation account. You may take this as the economic reason.

But there is also the political reason. The bigger the size of the population of a state the bigger the size of its electorate, and if you stretch it further, the bigger it’s political power, influence and clout at the national level, hence the perennial battle between Lagos and Kano States over which is the most populated in Nigeria. This could also determine the number of House of Representatives seat at the National Assembly allocated to each state.

While the jostle for more money and stronger political voice by the states at the federal level, using population figures could be considered as ‘healthy’ the one that is most disturbing is the throwing of religion into the equation by politicians. The battle now is which religion between Islam and Christianity has more followers in the country. While some Muslim leaders say Islam holds the edge, their Christian counterparts believe they are in the majority.

And you know why they are saying this? Just for political gain. The other day a delegation of Muslims were at the Villa to see President Goodluck Jonathan and one of their complaints was that Muslims (who according to them are in the majority in Nigeria) are being shortchanged in this country and they cited the composition of the ongoing national conference which they said was skewed in favour of the Christians. Some christian leaders, especially since Jonathan became president, have been shouting from the roof top claiming marginalization (of Christians) all this while (pro-Jonathan) and threatening all sort if the president was not returned in 2015.

The latest of this dangerous religious card being played by politicians is the likely Muslim/Muslim presidential ticket the main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) is being speculated as planning for the 2015 presidential election. The two national leaders of the party and its leading lights, Alhaji Mohammadu Buhari and Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu are Muslims and are both being tipped as presidential and vice presidential candidates of the party in next year’s election.

The social media has gone into overdrive since the speculation surfaced in the main stream media over the weekend and from the tone of the discussion the neutrals might be inclined to think that Nigeria is on the brink of a religious war. Far from it. But I doubt whether their is anybody out there without a position on the likely presidential ticket of the two leading parties in 2015.

While common sense dictates that the parties will strike a balance between Christians and Muslims in their choice of candidates to run for the offices of president and vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2015, the elite who are fanning the embers of religious division within the polity should be careful lest they get consumed by the fire they are stoking.

Rather than promoting ethnic and religious division among Nigerians, these self centered elite should be talking about good governance and which candidate(s) is/are best suited for the job at hand in 2015: leading Nigeria into the promised land.

I don’t know what a Muslim/Muslim or a Christian/Christian presidency could do to improve the lot of the average Nigerian and indeed the entire country if the leaders so elected in 2015 turned out to be bad. What advantage accrued to Christians as a body with the Obasanjo presidency and what did the Muslims get exclusively under the Yar’Adua presidency? Those who benefitted were members of the ruling cabal (both in politics and business) drawn from the two main religions. For every Aliko Dangotes that was there during Obasanjo and Yar’Adua there was a Femi Otedola. Which common man or poor man did you see with them then? I am just using these two successful businessmen and their likes to illustrate the fact that our leaders are drawn together more by interest rather than religion and their decisions are made along that line. How to reverse this trend should be our concern.

Religion is a very delicate and dangerous issue that our leaders should not mix with politics. Any politician or leader who loves Nigeria would not mix the two. While Christianity is very well entrenched in the Southeast/Southsouth and the Middle Belt regions, Islam is the main religion in the north while the two religions coexists peacefully in the Southwest. So much has been said about religious tolerance in the Southwest that some are recommending the region as a model to other parts of the country. The truth is that in Yorubaland our culture and tradition are considered sacrosanct almost above Christianity and Islam. Here religion is personal and one is expected to tolerate the other person’s faith as long as it does not affect the free flow of society.

But this culture of religious tolerance is being stretched by politicians bent on grabbing power in the region at all cost and by all means. And this is dangerous for Yorubaland and may be Nigeria.

Most of the states in the Southwest have majority Muslim population yet our leaders have been Christians and nobody cared. From Chief Obafemi Awolowo to Pa Adekunle Ajasin, Pa Abraham Adesanya, Chief Bola Ige et al, were all Christians and damn good leaders too. And the people followed them. Since the advent of democracy, the governorship of the states in the region has been rotating between Christians and Muslims while in a few of the states one religion has been in charge of the government house for a longer period. To the ordinary person on the street, this does not matter as long as the government is performing. But these desperate politicians are not seeing it that way; to them it is the turn of our faith to produce the next governor. This is the card some politicians are playing in Lagos State now as we move towards the 2015 governorship election in the state.

The incumbent Raji Fashola, a Muslim is not eligible for re-election as he would be completing his two terms of eight years next year and there is a clamour for a Christian to replace him. There is nothing bad in that if you ask me but then the primary consideration in searching for his successor should not be religion. Who can sustain what is on ground in Lagos and even surpass Fashola’s achievements should be uppermost in the minds of those searching for his successor, if the person happens to be a Christian, fine, fantastic. There are Christians who can do it if the leaders search well and the electorate approve.

Lagos has been a model in Nigeria in so many respect and should remain so. Nothing should be done to derail the centre of excellence. Need I say the health of Lagos is the health of Nigeria?

Back to Abuja and the Jonathan’s national conference. It would be good if the delegates could resolve the issue of religion and it’s place in our national life. There is so much talk about Nigeria being a secular state yet our leaders still use state resources to sponsor religious activities. Pilgrimages should be a private affair, left in the hands of the religious bodies set up by the faithful. Government needs only to set up the guidelines and get involved only when consular matters crop up. The amount of money government spends on pilgrimages is one of the reasons these religious groups/bodies are clamouring for one of their own to be in government. If this kind of attraction is no longer there, may be the agitation would wane. May be.