By Fredrick Nwabufo. On the cusp of every political evolution in Nigeria, there is often a trafficking of recriminations — ‘’The north is scheming to dominate the south, and the south is angling to outwit the north’’. Syrupy conjectures and time-tested misconceptions. Crisis merchandisers are at their best stoking the tension as conspiracy theories of Islamisation surge in the public grid. We will always have conspiracy theories and crisis merchandisers – for as long as unity and mutual trust remain elusive. Bola Tinubu, APC presidential candidate, has set off a tinderbox of reactions by his choice of running mate — Kashim Shettima, former governor of Borno. Ordinarily, there should be no hue and cry over his decision. He is at liberty to decide who to walk and work with. But Nigeria has been diametrically sundered by years of attrition, hate-bartering and exhausting recriminations. Undoubtedly, the psychological mutilations from these years of anger will shape up to be the frustrations of the next administration. Should Tinubu relinquish his right to choose a running mate he believes is loyal, competent and can help him win the presidential election so as to pacify those threatening Armageddon? I do not think it will be fair to relieve him of carte blanche in this regard. He is only a presidential candidate, and not yet the president. If he becomes the president in 2023, then it becomes a bounden and inescapable obligation for him to abide, through and through, by the constitutional stipulations of federal character. The truth is, Nigerians are hurting from the exclusivist governance style of the current administration and are afraid of a reprise of their agony; hence the outcry. It will be imprudent to dismiss the concerns of the Christian community who have endured the tragedies of kidnapping, killing; desecration of places of worship and other assaults on their existence by Islamist terrorists. Their agitations are born out of the realities of the times. Priests are being kidnapped in what appears to be a targeted hit. Only a few weeks ago, terrorists attacked a church in Owo, Ondo state, killing about 40 people, including children. So, it will be injudicious to shrug off the apprehension of the Christian community on the Muslim-Muslim ticket. However, Tinubu is one whose leadership antecedents are a staple of public discourse. Religious or ethnic bigotry is not in the trove of the famous allegations against him. As governor of Lagos, Tinubu had a diverse cabinet; in fact, he is reputed to be one of the few governors who appointed non-natives, including Igbo citizens, to their cabinet at the time — when bringing non-indigenes into state cabinets or government positions was unsexy. I watched the interview of Sam Ayedogbon, senior apostolic leader at Realm of Glory International Churches, on Arise TV, on Tuesday. The pastor railed against Tinubu’s choice of running mate, but said something profound about the APC presidential candidate. He said when Tinubu was governor of Lagos, a church was to be demolished for certain official reasons, but he protested against it to the governor. He said Tinubu invited him to explain the reasons for the planned exercise, but he declined to meet with him. According to Pastor Ayedogbon: ‘’But the church was no longer demolished’’. Really, I black out when conversations oscillate around religion and ethnicity. I think the issues we should be interrogating at this time are: Security; Economy; Education; Healthcare; Infrastructure. I would rather assess the presidential hopefuls by their blueprint on these fundamentals which directly affect me than flagellate over religion. I believe Tinubu has his work cut out for him. He should reach out to the Christian community, their leaders and groups with tactile assurances, and that if he becomes president, he will build a country where all Nigerians can exist under justice, equity, peace and harmony and where no one will be excluded on the basis of religion or ethnicity. He should going forward begin to show prospects of inclusion and of sensitivity to diversity in his disposition, plans and policy paradigms. It is important that he shows there will be no perpetuation of the current administration’s exclusivist proclivities which deepen national strife and insecurity. Let me synopsise my thoughts with this poignant paragraph from ‘The Broken Truths; Nigeria’s Quest for National Cohesion’ – a book by Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah. He wrote ever so candidly: ‘’God created us for a purpose and meaning in life. He is the Lord of History and time. However, for us Nigerians, God has become the greatest excuse for the inefficiency, corruption, and shameful degrading life of our people today. We are over 90% percent Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, but there is nowhere in the world where religion has become an incubus, a burden, and a source of dreadful violence as it has in Nigeria. Our leaders are constantly kneeling before pastors and imams seeking blessings while the rest of the world is moving on, drawing inspiration from sweat, brains and brawn without evoking God. We, on the other hand, evoke God to witness to our corruption and outright larceny.’’

  By Niran Adedokun Except for members of the All Progressives Congress, I do not understand the contestations following the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s choice of a running mate. If you do not support the APC, your discontent with the choice is enough tonic to mobilise for the defeat of this candidate, his running mate and the party that is fielding them. Members of the party can disagree with their candidate, raise hell if they like, and even walk out of the party on the strength of what they may consider as trampling on their rights. Democracy is a festival of ideas where everyone should have the freedom of choice. So, Christians and Muslims in the APC, who can’t stand the idea of a one-faith presidential ticket because it seems unfair, have every right to vent or even leave the party because it goes against their beliefs. But anyone without affiliations to the APC should seize the opportunity to explore any of the other options that the 2023 elections present. This is the very essence of democracy, and something that Nigerians should imbibe if we truly desire democratic governance. Is there really anywhere in the world where politicians make electoral decisions just for the sake of equity? Whenever their choices seem just and fair, rest assured that they arrive at such decisions because the courses of equity and impelling desire to win elections align at some juncture. Nothing goes for nothing with those who play politics. Religion and ethnicity, which should unify, have become the major albatrosses holding Nigeria back lately. It is not out of place for citizens to expect politicians to be sensitive to their sentiments, which is why one was shocked with the casual way Tinubu put the name of his running mate forward over the weekend. Reputed to be a renowned political strategist and tactician, one expected more tact in the handling of this matter. For instance, unveiling Shettima in a gathering of respected political actors like supportive APC chieftains and Christian opinion molders and voices, would have been a more respectful way to approach the matter than the arrogant, “those who don’t like it can go to hell,” amateurish announcement at Daura. These politicians must learn that strategic communication promotes trust and calms tempers, but what do I know? That said, however, Nigerians also need to know that politicians only care about interests that give them the advantage, especially when it concerns winning elections. Three considerations are paramount in choosing a running mate, especially in a country like Nigeria where those voted into executive offices like to be totalitarian. The most important factor would be the electoral value of the person under consideration. From what we hear, the average northern Muslim doesn’t have serious regard for the faithful from the South. As a result, it is probably only southerners who see Tinubu as a Muslim, and that he is bound to detract from his prospects in the North if he selected a Christian as his vice since most of the votes in the North presumably come from Muslim dominated areas. With Senator Kashim Shettima as running mate, Tinubu takes away that handicap. He brightens his chances with someone seen as a “true” faithful. The choice of Shettima from the North-East is also strategic because it eliminates the likelihood that the electorate in that part of the country would vote en masse for the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku. By picking a former governor and chair of the Northern Governors Forum, the APC is sure to eat into Atiku’s votes in the North-East and affect his chances. The second consideration of a Nigerian politician would be the person who is most likely to remain loyal and not turn against him. This is more so with Tinubu, whose governorship history in Lagos State is of broken-down relationships, which ended in the impeachment of the two deputies he had in eight years. Such a man will no doubt prefer someone who would not undermine him. Unfortunately, there are no real guarantees as to the wonder that power does in the transformation of otherwise pliable people. Most often than not, these permutations blow off in the faces of those making them, but they at least give the chief executive some tentative sense of security. If Tinubu wins the presidential election, it remains to be seen how his relationship with Shettima, who is not a pushover, pans out. Third, the candidate will consider how compatible he is with a prospective running mate. Expectedly, any of those hoping to govern Nigeria from 2023 is a visionary. His choice of a vice must be someone who shares his ideals and ideas about moving the country forward. In the relationship between Tinubu and his running mate, time will tell how and where their visions for national reformation merge. For years until recently, Tinubu was vociferous about the need for the political restructuring of Nigeria as a panacea for development. But the man Tinubu is running with has never hidden his disdain for that conversation on political restructuring. Therefore, It will be interesting to see how the two work together on this and other issues if Nigerians choose to vote them in as President and Vice President. Anyhow it goes, it is the democratic right of the candidates to work together. It is the same way that it is the right of Nigerians to reject their candidacy for whatever reason. Unless those angry at Tinubu’s choice have concluded that the APC will win the 2023 elections, the current hullabaloo about the party’s vice presidential candidate is unnecessary and counterproductive. One understands the sentiment about the power of incumbency and how ruling parties hardly lose elections, but things changed in Nigeria since 2015, when the APC won the general elections despite the PDP’s incumbency. Who says this can’t happen again? Rather than issuing threats and heating the already tense polity, those who disagree with Tinubu’s choice, or the