Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), yesterday waded in on the controversial choice of a Muslim-Muslim ticket by presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, insisting that if the current hypothesis is true, it should be allowed to reflect in the coming polls.
Speaking on a wide range of issues on Channels Television last night, the former Lagos state governor maintained that there is currently too much religion in government and in the public space, stressing that religion should remain a private affair.
“I think that sometimes we need to test some hypotheses. And the opportunity to test this hypothesis is here. My position about religion has been made known on different platforms. I think religion should leave the public space and go back to where it belongs, to the homes and the religious centres.
“There is too much religion in our public life. And there is no nation that I know that we want to be like, that is promoting religion, it is a private thing. Praying in the public and others, I think we should just stop them and get down to the real business where you do your work,” Fashola stated.
He urged Nigerians to understand that democracy is an undertaking of numbers essentially, arguing that democracy is not necessarily always rational, but about what will yield the best results at a particular point.
“It’s the tyranny of the majority that has replaced the tyranny of the minority, because democracy was created to stop one man or woman from dictating to the majority,” he explained.
He maintained that everybody will make his political calculation about what he thinks will best serve his objective, noting that to break it down to a religious decision was to miss the point.
“I think sometimes, we should stop being afraid of fear itself. You know, if this is something that is real, the votes will show it eventually. And that’s my take, really. At the end of the day who cares? People want to drink water. People want good schools. People want good healthcare. People want infrastructure, they want to be secure.
“So if you go on both sides, you know, there’s been a Christian Vice President under a Muslim president, sadly, people were killed in a church, sadly, priests are murdered, the same way Muslims have been murdered.
“Neither the president nor the vice president loves those things too. But it has very little to do with our faith. Those who do it in the name of our faith are not members of our faith. They don’t profess our faith, good faith preach peace
“So what are people afraid of? We even assume that there are only two faiths. So this is about representation. We haven’t represented everybody. There are some people, minorities there who don’t belong to both faiths. They have a voice too. So let’s find a second vice president for them.
“I’m just saying that let us demystify this thing. And that’s why my starting position was leave religion where it belongs, in the hearts of people, in the churches or mosques and places of worship, and in the homes and not the public space,” he argued.
But he urged Tinubu and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to quickly recalibrate and get back to the issues, rather than the petty fighting that has dominated public discourse in recent days.
“And what concern Nigeria are the debates we should really have. How do we move ourselves to the prosperity that is imminent that this country will have because I know it will happen?
“Who is the best person to drive that vehicle. In my opinion, Bola Tinubu is the best person to drive that vehicle because I’ve worked with him at very close quarters. I know his capacity. I know his tenacity,” he added.
Fashola said he hoped that somehow this government comes through for all victims of crime and bring them relief, including the Kaduna-Abuja train abductees.
Stressing that security is not something that he will politicise, Fashola noted that security conversations require some detailed thinking , including a reassessment of family values.
He explained that for instance if people believe one can kidnap a human being, remove body parts and make money from it, then the values of the society should be re-examined.
He maintained that until Nigeria deals with its value system, through the homes, the religious institutions and reduce the preaching of miracles and sudden wealth, it might not experience major changes in societal vices.
“Some of these things are driven by that and they’re driven by drugs. They’re driven by parents not being as involved in the development of their children as they should.
“ So it’s going to take more than the federal governments. It’s going to take the whole nation to come back and say, this is where we want to go, and I think that conversation is going to be very extensive,” he noted.
Fashola, who had been surprisingly silent since the race for the 2023 presidential election began, promised to be as involved as possible in the Bola Tinubu for president project, noting that he had played his role all along.
“ I played my role. And I don’t need to be in the public space to make my interventions to offer advice, to offer suggestions, but if at any point in time it becomes necessary for me to do so, I will do so,” he added.
