Ahead of the 2023 general elections, a group under the auspices of Nigeria Democracy Defence Watch has insisted that any presidential aspirant flying a Muslim-Muslim ticket would lose the support of the electorate.
The warning was specifically directed at the All Progressives Congress (APC) whose presidential flagbearer, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is believed to be mulling a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
It noted at the weekend that such development will not only be a threat to national stability but could also retard peace and security in Nigeria.
In a 7-page letter written to President Muhammadu Buhari, the group said that if the ruling party goes ahead with the Muslim-Muslim ticket, it will only portray Nigeria as an Islamic and a sectarian nation, which will be ultimately resisted by the nation’s millions of practicing Christians, moderate and progressive Muslims and civic groups, ethno-cultural associations and enlightened members of the international community.
Alhaji Ahmed Ibrahim Adamu and Otunba Adeniji Niyi Adegoke, who are the National Coordinator and National Secretary respectively of Nigeria Democracy Defence Watch in the letter to the President titled, “APC’s Muslim-Muslim Ticket in Nigeria’s 2023 Elections: A Threat to National Stability, Regional Peace and Security,” said it is worried more particularly, the international dimension it is taking with a recent letter by five United States senators, where they are calling for readmission of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) due to the worsening sectarian violence in the country.
It observed that ‘horrific acts of deadly violence have been committed against Nigerian Christians in recent weeks, including the massacre of churchgoers on Pentecost Sunday and the stoning of a Christian college student, adding, “sadly, such violence has become all too familiar for Christians in Africa’s most populous country…Religious violence and intolerance directed toward Nigerian Christians have worsened in recent years. One report documented more than 4,650 cases of Nigerian Christians who were killed for their faith in 2021.”
The group has, therefore, called on President Buhari to direct the security forces to do the needful by advising Tinubu and the ruling party on the possible threats this action could pose to security in the country.
“It is pertinent to note the serious implications of the above with regards to security. This is especially when one rightly imagines that Christians will feel threatened with a Muslim/Muslim ticket, and may resort to pulpit preachings and mobilization of opinions across the Christendom.
“Civil society organizations and students would likely protest this destructive introduction into our polity in various manners which may constitute security concerns. However, it should be noted that the ‘original sin’ is the adoption of a Muslim/Muslim ticket by the ruling APC, and not the reactions and responses that may follow it,” it said.
In the letter to the President, which was also copied to all heads of democratic and security institutions in Nigeria as well as other international concerns, the group also warned of the danger such political arrangement could cause to continental security.
“The West African sub-regional, and indeed, African regional peace and security are basically predicated on the presumption of Nigeria’s political stability, or at least, the absence of any conflict that can overwhelm the Nigerian State. This is because there is nothing in the African Peace and Security Architecture that is designed to contain a conflict in Africa’s largest population of over 200 million people in a country that shares very porous borders with three sub-regions – West, Central, and North Africa.
“In the first place, its humanitarian consequences are frightening to imagine – in the event of a civil war or armed conflict in Nigeria, there will be a complete sub-regional meltdown in 72 hours if just five percent of the Nigerian population crosses the borders. Its economic repercussions will be a total calamity across the entire sub-regions of West and Central Africa. The security implication of weapons proliferation and explosion of the two deadly terrorist organizations currently based in Nigeria, into the rest of the entire continent of Africa, can only be better imagined.
“We therefore implore you to use your good offices to weigh in on Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu to thread with caution and refrain from his unyielding desire to foist on the nation a MUSLIM-MUSLIM ticket, which if it succeeds will make the above tragic and destructive humanitarian quagmire a distinct possibility,” the group warned.
