Any political party that fields a single faith ticket as being contemplated in some quarters will risk national stability as such action is capable of harming the peace and security of the country.
This is according to a group, Nigeria Democracy Defence Watch, which maintained in a statement on Sunday, that the ruling party must avoid any action that seeks to portray Nigeria as an Islamic or sectarian country as this will be resisted by a huge part of the population.
In a 7-page letter written to President Muhammadu Buhari, the civic group warned that if the ruling party goes ahead with the Muslim/Muslim ticket, it will attract the reaction of practising Christians, moderate, progressive Muslims, civic groups, ethnocultural associations and enlightened members of the international community.
Signed by Alhaji Ahmed Ibrahim Adamu and Otunba Adeniji Niyi Adegoke, the National Coordinator and National Secretary of the group, respectively, the group’s letter titled “APC’s Muslim/Muslim Ticket in Nigeria’s 2023 Elections: A Threat to National Stability, Regional Peace and Security,” stated that it is worried especially because of the international dimension it is taking with a recent letter by five United States senators to the US Senate where they called for re-listing of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) due to the worsening sectarian violence in the country.
Recall that the US Senators had observed that “horrific acts of deadly violence have been committed against Nigerian Christians in recent weeks, including the massacre of churchgoers on Pentecost Sunday and the stoning of a Christian college student. Sadly, such violence has become all too familiar for Christians in Africa’s most populous country…Religious violence and intolerance directed toward Nigerian Christians has worsened in recent years. One report documented more than 4,650 cases of Nigerian Christians who were killed for their faith in 2021.’
The group, therefore, called on President Buhari to advise the presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Tinubu, on the possible threats this action could pose to security in the country.
It wrote: “It is pertinent to note the serious implications of the above with regards to security. This is especially when one rightly imagines that Christians will feel threatened with a Muslim/Muslim ticket, and may resort to pulpit preachings and mobilisation of opinions across the Christendom.
“Civil society organisations and students would likely protest this destructive introduction into our polity in various manners which may constitute security concerns.
“However, it should be noted that the ‘original sin’ is the adoption of a Muslim/Muslim ticket by the ruling APC, and not the reactions and responses that may follow it.”
Copying the letter to all heads of democratic and security institutions in Nigeria as well as other international concerns, the group also warned on the danger such political arrangement could cause on continental security.
It added: “The West African sub-regional, and indeed, African regional peace and security are basically predicated on the presumption of Nigeria’s political stability, or at least, the absence of any conflict that can overwhelm the Nigerian State.
“This is because there is nothing in the African Peace and Security Architecture that is designed to contain a conflict in Africa’s largest population of over 200 million people in a country that shares very porous borders with three sub-regions – West, Central and North Africa.
“In the first place, its humanitarian consequences are frightening to imagine – in the event of a civil war or armed conflict in Nigeria, there will be a complete sub-regional meltdown in 72 hours if just 5 per cent of the Nigerian population crosses the borders. Its economic repercussions will be a total calamity across the entire sub-region of West and Central Africa.
“The security implication of weapons proliferation and explosion of the two deadly terrorist organizations currently based in Nigeria, into the rest of the entire continent of Africa, can only be better be imagined.
“We, therefore, implore you to use your good offices to weigh in on Sen Bola Ahmed Tinubu to thread with caution and refrain from his unyielding desire to foist on the nation a MUSLIM-MUSLIM ticket which if it succeeds will make the above tragic and destructive humanitarian quagmire a distinct possibility.”