Of June 12 and 2023 elections – Part 4

Continued from yesterday

Albert Oladapo Ogunwusi:
There was a section of the 1979 constitution that expressly forbade such a ticket.

The 1989 constitution however did not have such a component. In fact, I was connected with MKO’s effort to disqualify Kingibe on that ground. Kingibe was not Abiola’s choice. It was the governors led by Segun Osoba who insisted on Kingibe.

Paschal Bafyau, Abiola’s preferred choice, was run down in a way that I will rather not narrate the specifics. I recall that we sought the involvement of my friend, Barr. Akinjide Sadiq to try and search for such a rule. It did not exist! Now the problem is much worse because the present Constitution does not mention demographics in such an event. Section10 only talks about avoiding the adoption of the state religion. I don’t see how that could be stretched to imply the result intended in this article. It is political suicide okay. But I would love to see it played out legally.

Victor Umana:
In a society/country where civil advocacy and grassroots conscientization is weak, the elites exploit primordial sentiments to weaponize their selfish agenda hiding behind religion and ethnicity.

Adeola Samuel Opeyemi:
They are looking for competency and capacity which Christians all over didn’t possess noni. Only Muslim candidate has electoral value.

Yahaya Jaji Abdullahi:
The problem is that most of the people talking against the Muslim-Muslim tickets are either PDP members or apologists. The reason why PDP fielded Atiku against Southern aspirants even when they know Buhari is about to spend eight years in power is the same reason that might warrant APC’s fielding two Muslims on their ticket.

The central thing is about winning elections and not appealing to the emotion of anyone. Majority of the population of Northern Christians don’t believe in APC hence the party cannot gamble its trust to people that refused to accept them against those that believe and trust them and will massively support them….. It is just simple politics!!!

Lawrence Oko Peter:
Yahaya Jaji Abdullahi, Why would a Northern Christian vote in APC, with the carnage done in Southern Kaduna by the indifferent Jihadist El –Rufai? Why would Northern Christians vote APC, with the senseless killings in Sokoto, Abuja and elsewhere over claims of blasphemy and religious intolerance? The Northern Muslims see and classify other faiths as infidel even Muslims of other regions in Nigeria are infidels…

Akinladey MO’valiant Kennyllionaire:
Sir, Nigeria is operating a multi-party system not the APC party alone. APC is a party out of many in Nigeria. If we don’t like the combination from APC, we should vote elsewhere. Democracy is a game of numbers not of religion. If the Constitution didn’t say APC can’t flag people of the same faiths, so be it, as long as we are not forced to vote for them. If Muslim-Muslim propagates superiority of faith, don’t you think if Atiku in PDP wins, it will propagate superiority of the North, when the current president is from North? Is there no superiority of faith in Ondo and Ekiti where both governors and their deputies are of Christianity faith? Or are there no Muslims in those states? Zoning and same faith are not issues in our Constitution. Many Nigerians voted in 1993 for people of the same faiths. And a minority voted against it. If APC presents people of the same faith, it’s your constitutional right to vote for or against it. The winner will indicate if you are with the majority or the minority. It will become history in the end. Democracy solves many problems, but not all problems.

Elder Peter Bassey:
Akinladey MO’valiant Kennyllionaire tomorrow posterity will judge you when a Christian South will choose a Christian North, I hope you won’t cry injustice. Where in the Constitution must the position of the President and Vice-President be shared north and south if not for justice and equity fairness to all, must everything be a game of numbers?

Josef Ameh:
I stand with you on this. It is unthinkable, not in this present Nigeria. No religion or tribes that are devoid of competency and capacity. If they try it, we shall mobilize the church to vote against such a party! It matters. If it doesn’t matter, a brain like Adegboruwa wouldn’t be fighting against it. Sadly enough same Muslim-Muslim will not provide us with good governance, if it is certain for good governance we wouldn’t be convulsing.

Gogonte Obediah:
So if they give Vee Pee to someone like Yakubu Dogara, Boss Mustapha, Babachir Lawal, Gov. Lalong and a host of other credible Northerners, we will not have a deliverable government, until we give to El Rufai or Kashim Shetima or Ganduje who could not deliver their states? You guys always fall flat to the antics of Fulani Muslims. They don’t want to stay off power for one day, so they want to give you reasons why it must be them. If not, between Yakubu Dogara, the only PDP man to have survived the Buhari tsunami in 2015 and El-Rufai who has turned Kaduna into the cemetery of living death, who is better?

Lucas Adetula:
Let everybody be prettier that Muslim-Muslim ticket is normal the same ticket that was not normal even to Tinubu in 2015 because he wants to fulfil a life AMBITION now we can justify it even if other people involved are not okay with it. Why win elections and start solving avoidable fracas?

Obinna Iheonu:
Since APC and PDP do not believe in equity, justice and fairness any more, based on the last primaries, they can as well pick Muslim-Muslim or Christian-Christian ticket from anywhere, so that people supporting such evil will come to realize that allowing evil has the consequences of hunting the supporters of such evil.

Concluded
Adegboruwa is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).