• Say remarks threaten national unity, mock governance

A former Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, has condemned as a distortion of democratic politics the comments by Sheikh Yahaya Jingir that the continued support for a Muslim-Muslim ticket proves Muslims are numerically superior to Christians.

Warning that Nigeria risks sliding into what he called “a dangerous form of religious majoritarianism” if political leadership becomes a contest over which faith has more followers, Dalung, in a statement on his verified Facebook wall yesterday, questioned the wisdom of reducing Nigeria’s complex political and socioeconomic problems to a religious headcount.

Jingir made the call at an event attended by some All Progressives Congress (APC) governors, including Abba Yusuf of Kano State and Umar Namadi of Jigawa State, according to a video going viral yesterday.

He stated that Muslims should continue supporting the Muslim-Muslim ticket because it demonstrates that they are more numerous than Christians in Nigeria. He was also reported to have urged Muslims to “show infidels their limit.”

Also reacting, Nigeria’s Ambassador-designate to South Africa, Femi Fani-Kayode, said they were “highly provocative” and warned against what he described as extremist rhetoric.

“I have immense respect for Sheikh Jingir, but I am constrained to point out that the extremist rhetoric he has indulged in here is most unhelpful, and neither is it true,” Fani-Kayode wrote on X yesterday.

“Worse is the fact that it is highly provocative. Kindly take note that it is a very slippery and dangerous slope to take and is best avoided.”

However, Dalung stated that Nigeria is not a religious trophy to be claimed by whichever faith can establish a numerical advantage. He noted that a Muslim-Muslim ticket does not put food on a Muslim family’s table, secure communities from kidnappers, create jobs, or repair the country’s collapsing infrastructure.

He added that it does not rescue a kidnapped Muslim farmer, educate a Muslim child, or make fuel, food, or medicine affordable; it also does not fix bad roads, restore reliable electricity or provide functioning hospitals.

For Dalung, the more troubling issue is the language of religious domination. Questioning who Nigerians are expected to regard as “infidels,” he warned against turning fellow citizens into religious enemies.

He also pointed to Christians who have supported Muslim candidates, Muslims who reject religious politics and millions of Nigerians whose principal concern is competent leadership rather than the religious identity of those occupying political office.

Dalung warned that once political arguments become centred on who has the larger religious population, democracy risks being reduced to what he called “religious arithmetic.”

The former minister insisted that supporters of a Muslim-Muslim ticket should defend it on measurable issues such as competence, security, justice, economic growth and good governance.

He rejected the suggestion that religious identity should determine who deserves political power or who should be made to feel politically subordinate.

According to Dalung, Nigeria belongs to Muslims, Christians and citizens who subscribe to neither faith, stressing that no Nigerian should be told to “know their limit” because of their religion.

He further called for a political culture in which leaders compete over their ability to deliver security, jobs, affordable food, quality education, healthcare and justice, rather than“the majority in a mosque or in a church.”

Meanwhile, Fani-Kayode insisted that “Nigeria is not a Muslim country and neither is it a Christian country. She is a secular and multi-religious state comprising both Christians and Muslims in equal numbers and that is our strength.”

Fani-Kayode said his support for a Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2027 is based on the candidates’ qualities rather than their religion.

He added: “We are supporting a Muslim/Muslim ticket for 2027, as we did in 2023, only because of the calibre, ability, sincerity of purpose, character, utility and electoral strength of our presidential and vice-presidential candidates and their ability to deliver and not because they are Muslims.”