Bar. Inibehe Effiong is Wrong, The Muslim-Muslim Ticket is In No Violation of Any of Our Nation’s Laws & Principles -By Saliu Momodu

The up and coming, young and energetic Barr Inibehe Effiong attempted some erudition today when he concluded after a long piece that the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket of the APC candidacy violates, not the Nigerian Constitution but, the Federal Character Principle that it embodies.
While I am not holding brief for the APC and for it’s government that leaves so much to be desired, I here wish to posit that Barr Effiong’s essay is burdened (deliberately or mistakenly) with mainly four grievously wrong assumptions and conclusions.

Firstly, our amiable barrister is wrong to include that religion by any intent and purpose is anywhere captured by the federal character principle of our country Nigeria. After conceding that religion, by standards of our Constitution, is no yardstick for inclusion, exclusion or eligibility for elective offices in Nigeria, the writer nonetheless tried but in vain to phantom such a presumption with the Federal Character Principle of Nigeria.

For the avoidance of doubt, the Federal Character Principle in question is rooted in Section 14 of the Nigerian Constitution as amended. Interestingly, the section talked about states and ethnic identities or extraction but never once referenced religion. Hence before the constitution, and in all statutory matters pertaining to State, power and administration,  religion is as immaterial as career, professional leaning or culinary preferences.

In a clever stroke of legalistic manoeuvering however, Barr Effiong, in trying to tie religion to federal character, made an isolated reference to some 1977 document that defined ‘character’ with the inclusion of religion. But the document cited is a mere report of some constitutional committee which, unlike the Constitution, is as inconsequential as a newspaper column with respect to the statute books and body of laws governing this country and her political administration.

The second fallacy of the barrister’s piece is his attempt to make the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket of the APC to appear as running foul of Section 15, subsection 2 of the Constitution. Unfortunately for our barrister and all those who seek to adopt this strategy, Section 15 of the Constitution only talks about discrimination- discrimination on grounds of religion (amongst other stated parameters of identity). Evidently, what obtains with the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC is not a move to deliberately deny a certain religious base of their due, legal and legitimate right to the presidential or vice presidential ticket. Were that to be the case, the Party would be well guilty of discrimination, running foul thereby of Section 15 subsection 2 of our constitution. Instead, the APC, by adopting the ticket is only prospecting and positioning for a more sellable candidacy of wider electoral appeal for a winning chance at the polls.

The third misleading conclusion from Barr Effiong’s long essay is the claim that the APC in 2014 jettisoned a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket so as to come in line with the Federal Character Principle of the country. The Barr, by this submission, is either ignorant of the politics of that period in 2014 or he is simply being mischievously economical with the truth in derogation of the APC. Even from the infamous outburst of the present APC presidential flag-bearer in the eve of the Party’s primary election in June this year, there was no mention of Federal Character Principle as a determinant in the selection of Professor Yemi Osinbajo as the presidential running mate to Muhammadu Buhari for the 2015 general elections. What happened back then in 2014 which contributed in no small measure to APC’s victory at the polls was purely political permutation for higher electoral value, and I make bold to say that the same is what the present Muslim-Muslim ticket is all about.

Lastly on this largely misleading piece by Barr Effiong, I must say that many Nigerian commentators, our Barrister not the least amongst the lot, are oftentimes duplicitous on their take regarding matters of religion. These self-acclaimed political pundits seem always to be in an orgy to swing, alter, change, hide and many times confuse the standard before what is largely an unsuspecting populace once religion comes into the mix. The idea from the last two decades, as perpetuated by the West’s so-called war on terror (which in effect was more or less a proliferation of terror), that Muslims are coming to take and hold everyone hostage has again re-emerged in Nigeria as a bait for clout chasing public commentary.

The failure, admittedly, of this Buhari’s APC administration has wittingly been weaponised yet again to attack, slander and malign Muslim in Nigeria. Ironically however, it is the Muslims that have by far taken in more casualties from the ineptitude of this administration. It is partly for these reasons that the weaponisation of this choice of presidential ticket may appear to many Muslims as some sophisticated measure for alienation and victimization.

There is a reason why religion is neither captured in the Constitution nor in the Federal Character Principle of this country as an exclusionary or inclusionary factor for elective offices. It is so you don’t, under the guise of national unity and cohesion, happen to “legally” deny Christians what is righfully theirs, or as in this case, victimize and deny a Muslim of what unarguably is within his/her right: to vote and be voted for. Furthermore, people change religion as we witness every now and then, but same cannot be said about states of origin, tribe or ethnicity hence their emphatic and categoric mention in the Constitution. Besides, I don’t want to believe that our Barrister would want to draw on the logic of his essay to demand a substantive Vice President to resign the office in the event that he conscientiously and voluntarily changes his faith to become the same as that of his principal.

In closing, let me urge Nigerians to reslove today to show more love to one another and endeavor to remain within the confines of the law even as they play politics

Saliu Momodu
saliumomoh123@gmail.com