When Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu unveiled a Muslim/Muslim ticket in 2023, he not only crossed the Rubicon of Nigeria’s delicate religious balance, he also tested the resilience of our Constitution against the docility of Christians in politics. That Tinubu is a Muslim—and proudly so—is no crime. That Muslims in Nigeria understand the mechanics of political timing and slicing the national cake to their advantage is also no surprise. What remains in question is the Christian response: can the Church transform from a moral voice to a political force?
The Numbers Christians Ignore, Muslims Deploy
Religion remains the single strongest factor in the voting behavior of Northern Nigeria. The Northwest—with its seven states—is traditionally consolidated on the Muslim side. Yet, even there, Christian communities like Southern Kaduna carry millions of votes that often get drowned because they vote in faith but not in strategy.
The Northeast presents an even more interesting picture. While the Muslim vote is strong, Christianity is dominant in Southern Borno, Taraba in its entirety, and substantial populations in Gombe and Adamawa. Here lies a fragmented Christian vote, potent but uncoordinated, perpetually absorbed into the larger Muslim consensus.
But it is the North Central that carries the ace. Plateau’s resistance is legendary, as the 2023 results affirmed. In Benue, APC was compelled to field a Reverend Father to constrip Christian loyalty. Nasarawa, Kogi, Niger, and Kwara all present fault lines where the Christian vote, if consolidated, can alter the balance of power. Yet, the zone remains politically naïve—too quick to accept tokens, too slow to negotiate power.
The Cross of Injustice: Christians in Politics
Tinubu’s justification for the Muslim/Muslim ticket still stands unrepented, a wound on the conscience of Christian Nigeria. Yet, even worse than his audacity is the docility of Christians who accepted it with resignation. The Northern Christian elite, historically accustomed to kowtowing to power for crumbs, reinforced this defeatism. As one Northern Christian leader confessed to me, “Our people are used to taking whatever they are given.”
The leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), which should have galvanized a political counterforce, instead shrank into prebendal politics. When Bishop STV Adegbite cornered both the Nigeria Christian Pilgrims Commission and the Chaplaincy of the State House Chapel, Northern Christians were left with little to show for their sacrifices in the battlefield of 2023.
The Dormant Giant: Political Potential of Northern Christians
The Christian population in Northern Nigeria is no minority to be pitied; it is a sleeping giant that must be provoked into awakening. Let us lay bare its potential:
Demographic Spread: Across Plateau, Southern Kaduna, Benue, Taraba, Southern Borno, Adamawa, and Gombe, Christians command no less than 30–35 million votes when aggregated. This figure is more than enough to alter presidential and gubernatorial outcomes when strategically deployed.
Moral Authority: The Northern Church holds the moral ground as victims of persecution, yet moral tears unchanneled into political strategy will never translate into power.
Bridge Power: Northern Christians are uniquely positioned to handshake with the South—especially the South-East and South-South—on a solidarity project that is both faith-inspired and constitutionally guaranteed.
Constitutional Leverage: The 1999 Constitution (flawed as it is) still recognizes equal citizenship and political rights. Yet Christians have failed to leverage this to demand structural balance in appointments and representation.
The Reach-for-It Project
The Muslim/Muslim ticket must become the last insult Christians endure passively. The “Reach-for-It Project” calls Northern Christians to:
1. Build a Lobbying Bloc: Beyond CAN, create an independent political lobby platform with grassroots structures to aggregate and negotiate the Christian vote.
2. Handshake the South: Forge a faith-and-justice coalition with Southern Christians, particularly the politically restless youths of the South-East and South-South, to press for a constitutional balance of faith in leadership.
3. Field Viable Candidates: From councillorship to governorship, Northern Christians must stop playing second fiddle. Candidates must be groomed, funded, and marketed. Plateau and Benue have already proved it is possible.
4. Redefine Politics as Witness: The Church must evolve beyond pulpit lamentations. To “bear the cross” must mean mobilizing believers to register, vote, and defend their votes—not only pray.
Conclusion: From Docility to Destiny
The Muslim/Muslim ticket was not just a political decision; it was a referendum on the political relevance of Christians in Nigeria. And the verdict was clear: docile, divided, and dispensable.
But history is not destiny. Northern Christians can, and must, rise to rewrite the script. To do so, they must awaken to their numbers, mobilize their moral authority into political capital, and forge cross-regional alliances.
President Tinubu’s audacity must become the provocation for Christian productivity. For in politics, injustice is never corrected by lamentation, only by negotiation backed with power.
It is time to move from docility to destiny. It is time to reach for it.