The ‘See-Finish’ Of One Half of Nigeria

As an exponent of merit and competence, if someone had asked me in 2015 or 2017, or even as late as 2021, my thoughts about presidential tickets, my views would have been far removedfrom what it is today.

About having a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket, or Christian-Christian ticket, or even pagan-pagan ticket, I would probably have said no problem, provided the duo involved count among the best in Nigeria. Not anymore. What changed? The Buhari Maladministration happened!

Now my views have changed from championing merit solely, to championing both merit and diversity simultaneously. True, President Muhammadu Buhari had a Christian running mate. Despite that fact, he continued arrogantly without the slightest regard for Nigeria's diversity. He ran Nigeria in a slipshod fashion, solely for the benefit of the Fulani first, and Northern Muslims next. Everyone else to go to hell if they so wished.

Taking a cue from his rabid nepotism, the Governor of Kaduna State ran for re-election under a Muslim-Muslim ticket, in a state split into two roughly equal Muslim and Christian halves. This in a state where Christians have been targets of ethnic cleansing in their ancestral homelands. Emulating him, his budding successor very recently announced a Muslim-Muslim ticket. So, a trend has been set, and is being perpetuated, of permanently excluding Christians from the seat of power in Kaduna State.

In fairness to Bredda Bola Tinubu, he is not likely, or even expected, to abuse the requirements of diversity, as the arch expansionists in the Buhari Maladministration, and Kaduna State Government have so daringly done. What Bredda Tinubu has just done however, without prejudice to the competence or personal abilities of his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, who is not an expansionist, nor known to this writer to harbor extremist views, is set an extremely dangerous precedent.

To justify his action, Bredda Tinubu cites the precedence once set by Chief Moshood Abiola, who won election in 1993 on a Muslim-Muslim ticket. But that is precisely the point. Precedents once set in Nigeria, quickly become sticky, and swiftly transmute into the latest fad or semi-permanent tradition. In a country yet to heal from the grievous injuries inflicted upon it by the errant Buhari Maladministration, that is asking for trouble, very big trouble.

Is Bola Tinubu telling us that there are no Northern Christians capable of being President or Vice President in Nigeria? Or is it that Northern Christians are so minuscule in number that their votes do not matter? Must everything be about the expediency of counting more votes and not about harmonious nation-building?

The greatest asset of a national leader is their sense of judgement. No matter their past experiences, Presidents are not expected to function as technical experts in whatever field. But they are expected to have close to the final say in every field. So that ability to judge where the country really is as opposed to where you want it to be, or where you wish it ought to be,is priceless.

Without a close to accurate sense of judgement,a President will re-enact chaos in his country,just as the Buhari Maladministration has done in Nigeria. Lose that sense of judgement and a President may have lost everything. As our sistren Aisha Yesufu very aptly quipped. It is 'see-finish.’ I agree with her that it is ‘see-finish’of the Christian half of Nigeria.

In the years Before Buhari (BB), I and I would have said this Muslim-Muslim ticket matter is a non-issue, a nothing-burger. Now After Buhari(AB), it is a big issue, and a something-burger.

It is see-finish of the highest order. All thanks to the Muhammadu Buhari Presidency. Our bredrin Bola Tinubu may have to pay for the sins committed against merit and the abuses perpetrated against diversity by the BuhariMaladministration.

All through history, sons pay for the sins of their fathers and sometimes fathers are forced to pay for the sins of their sons. As both father and offspring of the Buhari Administration, from which he never dissociated himself and dare not ever dissociate himself, Bredda Bola Tinubu may have to pay very dearly for the sins against diversity of the Presidency he helped sired.

Unfortunately, it is the same diversity-transgressing Maladministration that is currently poised to sire Bola Tinubu’s dream Muslim-Muslim Administration. Some people never seem to learn from history, it seems.

We are watching......
Anthony Chuka Konwea, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, MNSE, FNIStructE, MNICE.