28th September,
2022
PRESS RELEASE:
MUSLIM-MUSLIM
TICKET: BAUCHI MURIC TACKLES DOGARA
The Chairman of Bauchi
State Chapter of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has reacted to statements linked
to Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara in which he condemned the idea of a Muslim-Muslim
ticket in the forthcoming 2023 presidential election.
In a statement
released on Wednesday, 28th September, 2022, the Bauchi Chapter
chairman, Barrister Idrees Safiyanu Gambo said :
“This piece became
necessary today, because of the surprise elements that triggered my reaction as
the Chairman of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) in Bauchi State.
“Let me start by
confessing that before now, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara used to have a special place
in my heart because despite our common tendencies he has remained relevant and
politically productive in Bauchi State politics since his emergence as the
Representative of the Dass, Tafawa Balewa, Bogoro Federal Constituency in 2007
till date.
“But his recent
presentation on the 20/09/2022 before the Nigerian National Christians
Coalition (NNCC), where right from the introductory part of his speech he went
straight to the issue of concern, saying:
“I need neither
remind us that nation building is such a complex and complicated subject so
much so that after 108 years of amalgamation and 62 years of independence, our
attempt at nation building has been, to say the least, an unmitigated disaster.
While this is a subject matter that should be on the lips of all Nigerians,
embarrassingly we busy ourselves with winning elections at all cost after which
the power elites deploy institutional prerogatives with reckless abandon as if
leadership is a zero-sum game. This of course, without any reference let alone
commitment to nation building.”
“The game from the
beginning seems very clear to people like Dogara, when they decided at the expense
of religion to support the candidature of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu despite the
presence of the Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo who is a fellow Christian
from the same South West, because in his political mathematics as Chief Chuba
Okadigbo will prefer to put it, at that time religion was secondary to their
personal ambition, because if you permit me, the office of the president of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria is more important to that of the Vice President in
any country.
“In my opinion, the
question of the Muslim-Muslim Ticket is purely a child of necessity in today’s
arrangement and nobody appears to have captured it without sentiment better than
the former Governor of Abia State, Senator Orji Uzo Kalu, when he posited, in
essence, that the aim of any political party is to win election and our reality
in Nigeria is that no party can afford to put two (2) minorities on the same
ticket, that Tinubu is a Muslim minority from the South and it will be a
political suicide for him to take a minority Christian from the North.
“Although I understand the need to hide under the guise
of ‘nation building’ by Rt. Hon. Dogara, in driving home the message of his
disappointment and his being snubbed by Bola Tinubu in the choice of his
running mate, but what I cannot still comprehend was the choice of a religious
platform to send such political message.
“No wonder Karl Max refers to religion as the opium of
the masses. It is obvious that if we just remove our political class, ordinary
Nigerians will easily blend with one another irrespective of any existing
dichotomy (Religion, Tribe, Region, State, Etc.), which tend to divide them
today. Our problem over the years has remained that of divide and rule by our
leaders at all levels.
To them, we are just
nothing but important tools for their political accomplishment. Whenever they
run out of other ideas on how to climb the political ladder, they simply turn
to their most potent weapons, religion, tribe, etc. But as soon as there comes any
political opportunity, they throw it away and feast with their perceived
enemies in the same pot (the national treasury). They care less about the
possibility of them overheating the polity for no reason once that served them
right at the heat of their moments.
Although Mr. Former
Speaker systematically removed himself from the position of authority in
deploying the divisive technique in his keynote address to the Christian group
that invited him, I believe he has succeeded in setting a tune to the summit
that will in the end help his desire for nation building.
“He has succeeded in
painting a very gloomy picture of irredeemability of our great country, as if
making him the Vice President is the only missing link needed in nation
building and once that is put in place our Nigeria will begin to fly straight
to the eluded Promised Land. This kind of thinking is, to say the least, very
lazy!
“For sure the 2023
General Election will come and go but the consequences of what our politicians
are doing today will live with us for generations yet unborn. Just as the wrongs
of yesterday are what we are reaping today, it will do us a greater good if we
turn to issue-based campaign.
“In the end when one
considers the call made by Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, the former Speaker House of Representatives
at the 8th Assembly on Christians not to waste their Votes in 2023,
one will still be forced to ask whether those Muslims in Dass, Tafawa Balewa,
Bogoro Federal Constituency have been wasting their votes since 2007 to date by
electing him or since 1999 thereby electing Christians to represent them in the
National Assembly.
“It is on record
that by 1999 when we returned to democracy, the first person to represent the
Dass, Tafawa Balewa, Bogoro Federal Constituency in the National Assembly
between 1999 – 2003 was Hon. Dauda Garba Bundot, a Christian from Dass Local
Government Area.
“Again between 2003
– 2007, Hon. Seth Alhassan Karfe, another Christian from Tafawa Balewa Local
Government Area, was elected. From 2007 – 2023, all other things being equal, it
has been our amiable Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara who is also another Christian.
However, he has successfully destroyed the seeming zoning arrangement of the
constituency, if any.
“Although, the
population of Muslims in the three (3) local government areas of the constituency
is greater than that of their Christian counterparts, the reality is is the
opposite. How then can we expect Nigeria to be different from what obtains in
our micro communities?
“Finally, I will
like to call on Hon. Yakubu Dogara to follow the spirit of his name and ‘Dogara
ga Allah’ (i.e. leave everything to God), as it is clear that he is doing more
harm than good to his hard earned political image and the reputation he
cultivated in the last 16 years, especially in Bauchi State where despite the
religious differences, he is highly revered as one of the most respected
leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“To us in MURIC, his political party is never an issue,
but the future has a way of rewriting the result of the past. Nation Building
did not begin with one person, Nigeria was there before all of us, it is here
with us today and it will be there for our children tomorrow, it all depends on
what we wish to bequeath to the next generation.”
Barrister Idrees Safiyanu
Gambo
Chairman,
Muslim Rights
Concern (MURIC),
Bauchi State Chapter
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