Femi Fani-Kayode on MUSLIM/MUSLIM TICKET (Part 1) Unlike some who only joined the political fray a few years ago, I have been in politics in this country for a total of 24 long years and during that period of time I have learnt a thing or two. The first lesson that I have learnt and which must be appreciated is the ability to distinguish between an ideal and reality. It is laudable to pursue an ideal and we must do all that we possibly can to enthrone it but it is disasterous to ignore the realities on the ground no matter how unsavoury or distasteful that reality may be. The ideal, which we all desire and which we all seek to enthrone, is to play the type of politics in our country which has no recourse to religion and where a man or woman’s faith is entirely their own affair. Yet the reality is that to ignore the religious sensitivities and differences of the Nigerian electorate is a manifestation of, at the very best, political naivety of the highest order and, at the very worst, dangerous, self-depreciating and self-destructive ignorance. Simply put, religion SHOULD NOT be a factor in our politics but in reality it IS a factor. To those who say that the APC will produce a Presidential and Vice Presidential candidate that have ‘’integrity, capacity and competence’’ and that the religious faith of those two candidates does not matter, I have only the following to say. The ‘’integrity, capacity, competence’’ and all those other laudable qualities are virtues that can surely be found in adherents of both the Muslim and the Christian faith. They are not the exclusive preserve of the adherents of one faith alone. You can find muslims that have these qualities and you can find Christians that have them as well. It therefore makes perfect sense to present one of such people from each of the two major faiths as a Presidential and Vice Presidential candidate respectively. This is especially so given the fact that Nigeria is a multi-religious, multi-cultural and multi-ethnic country which suffers from severe religious tensions and periodic sectarian violence and which has at least 80 million Christians and muslims on both sides of the divide living side by side. We are already sitting on a keg of gunpowder and to ignore one side of the religious divide and treat them with contempt and disdain may be the trigger that causes that keg to explode - extract from the essay titled THE STRANGE DREAM OF A MUSLIM/MUSLIM TICKET (Part 1) by Femi Fani-Kayode, Premium Times/ Saharareporters/Leadership Newspaper, Sunday March 6th, 2014.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 16:21:04 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015