On the Muslim-Muslim ticket   By: Okechukwu Edward Okeke

It’s no longer a Muslim-Muslim ticket. What was expected since the conclusion of the APC presidential primary election has happened: we now have the Muslim-Muslim ticket.

Before I proceed, permit me to issue this disclaimer: I am not an APC supporter; and, for the purpose of the 2023 presidential election, I am, to put it mildly, not likely to be.

Permit me to say this, too: using the subject of this essay for campaign purposes, for both the APC and its rivals, is, in the context of electoral politics, fair game. But it is needful to add that any party that wants to use it should beware of unintended consequences. I am concerned about unintended consequences. I am also concerned about the likelihood of misplaced focus in the campaign for the presidential election of 2023.

In the last paragraph of an essay posted on this medium three days ago (“Dealing with the Running Mate Matter”), I mentioned this matter briefly. The point of that essay is that the desirable goal of what is dubbed balanced ticket is incompatible with the more desirable goal of what is dubbed rotation. (I assume that it would be superfluous to embark on definitions of these terms: the reader knows them.) Thus, I suggested that the practice of balanced ticket be abandoned so that rotation can occur seamlessly.

To support the above suggestion, I cited Arthur Schlesinger Jr’s view on balanced ticket, to wit:

“The ‘balanced ticket’ is … a fraud on the public. It pretends that the Vice President’s views ‘balance’ the views of the President when all our history testifies that they have no impact at all on the President.”

Schlesinger Jr, an American presidential historian, was referring to the United States’ practice whereby both of the country’s leading parties often pair a presidential candidate with a vice-presidential candidate whose ideology is, within the context of the party’s platform, the opposite of the presidential candidate’s. In Nigeria, however, the balance that is sought is not ideological but geopolitical. In respect of presidential elections, the geopolitical zones are Northern Region and Southern Nigeria. Thus, political parties seek to balance the power of a prospective president from one geopolitical zone with that of a prospective vice-president from the other geopolitical zone. In the Nigerian context, I elaborated on the “fraud on the public” assertion by Schlesinger Jr, to wit:

“[When the candidate and his/her running mate assume office], balanced ticket does not really provide for (owing to lack of a better term) a balance of power…. The office of President/Governor and that of Vice President/Deputy Governor are not equal. The former does not share power with the latter. The latter does only what the former permits him/her to do. Indeed, many, like Atiku Abubakar in 2003-07, have been made redundant by the President/Governor and humiliated in several other ways. Thus, except if the objective of balanced ticket is make power shift to another geopolitical zone in the event of a death or impeachment of a President/Governor, the practice does not ensure that the enormous powers of a President/Governor are distributed in such a way as to prevent any geopolitical zone from taking undue advantage of others in the allocation of resources.”

As an addendum to the above argument, I wrote as follows:

“The main argument of this paper suggests that tension about the likelihood of one of our major parties having a Muslim-Muslim ticket is unnecessary. Power belongs to the President and, in the executive branch of government, he/she alone can take measures to protect the interests of the adherents of religions other than his/her own.”

With especial reference to the Muslim-Muslim ticket, it is necessary to say that a Vice-President that is a Christian lacks the power to shield Nigeria’s Christian population from being persecuted or marginalized in the allocation of resources by a Muslim President that is determined to do so. There are other institutions and forces that can do that: not a Vice President. Thus, and this is the purpose of this essay, the debate about the suitability of the candidates for the 2023 election should not focus on a matter that is important in its huge potential for cultural and geopolitical divisiveness but of little importance in terms of checks and balances in, and the allocation of resources by, the executive branch of government. There are several other important issues to consider—important issues that are not even potentially divisive on cultural and geopolitical grounds.

I crave your indulgence to add that there is no suggestion here that the position of a Vice-President is not important. It is indeed important, but as a potential President. Thus, each vice-presidential candidate should be assessed on the basis of his/her potential to effectively run the country if the President dies, resigns or is removed.

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This is jara .

The concern about religious-based (Christian-Muslim) balanced ticket in Nigeria, and in the states with large proportions of both Christians and Muslims, was not politically salient in 1979-83. Thus, among other things, the Unity Party of Nigeria had a Christian-Christian presidential ticket (Obafemi Awolowo and Philip Umeadi), and the Nigerian Peoples Party also had a Christian-Christian presidential ticket (Nnamdi Azikiwe and Ishaya Audu). Both parties lost the presidential election, we know. But the other parties did not try to portray these two presidential candidates as Christian extremists or expansionists. Now consider this. In the three Yoruba states with large proportions of both Christians and Muslims—Lagos, Ogun and Oyo—there was no balanced ticket on confessional grounds. In Lagos State, Lateef Jakande (Governor) and Rafiu Jafojo (Deputy Governor) were Muslims. In Ogun State, Victor Olabisi Onabanjo (Governor) and Sesan Samuel Soluade (Deputy Governor) were Christians. In Oyo State, James Ajibola Ige (Governor) and Sunday Afolabi (Deputy Governor) were Christians.

Balancing tickets on religious grounds became important from 1986, after the Ibrahim Babangida regime made Nigeria a member of the OIC. Christian leaders opposed it, and (permit this exaggeration) all hell was let loose.