Why Yakubu Dogara Should Be APC Vice Presidential Candidate – Ade Omoluabi

A former Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019, Right Honourable Yakubu Dogara is one of the top members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) being considered as its vice presidential candidate for the 2023 general elections.

Just last week, a former governor of Lagos State, and the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was elected as the presidential candidate of the party at a much-publicised primary election of the party held at Eagles Square in Abuja from June 6 to 8, 2022.

Tinubu is a Muslim from the South West and it is expected that the party should balance the equation by selecting a northern Christian as his vice.

Dogara hails from Tafawa Balewa Local Government area of Bauchi State. He is from Jarawa ethnic nationality, a predominantly Christian community.

Geographical zone wise, he is from the Northeastern zone of Nigeria. A zone that can be classified as consisting of 30-40% Christian population.

The notion that we have in down south and especially among classroom intellectuals in Yoruba land and th media is that anything after Lokoja is “Oke Oya” Ile Hausa (home of Hausa) simply because the Fulanis ruling class has propagated this false notion or premise.

The whole of Middle-belt of Nigeria is 80% Christians and adherents of the local traditional religions.

From Nupes to Gwagy, Eggons to Tivs, to Idomas to Agatu, to Beroms, Ngas, Taroks, to Gombe, to Yobe State to Southern Bornu, where the Chibok community is, they are 90% Christian’s, to Adamawa that is 85% Christians, a state that has elected three women to the Senate since 1999 of which two are Christians.

This extends to Taraba that is 70% Christians, which as part of old Gongola state (present Adamawa and Taraba), gave Obafemi Awolowo’s UPN two senators in the national assembly in the 2nd Republic.

In Benue, of course, everyone knows the religious disposition of the ethnic groups there. Nasarawa has a Christian majority if only they can come together as a block vote. Gombe State has at least a 40% Christian population. Of the three Senatorial seats in Gombe, Gombe South is the one designated to Christians.

The Northwest is at least 35% Christians. Katsina, and to Kano where the Maguzawas are, to Sokoto and to Niger, and of course Kogi State.

After 8 years of President Muhammadu Buhari rule, the Middlebelt is complaining on the bases of their religious and ethnic marginalization that has galvanized the on-going sensitization to the 2023 election voters turnout.

When Tinubu formed Action Congress (AC) after he left AD, his closest ally and and membership were the Christian part of northern Nigeria and especially the Middlebelt. AC later transformed to Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). ACN was well accepted in Plateau such that her governorship candidate, Architect I. D. Gyang lost the election to the PDP candidate, Governor Jonah Gyang by a few thousands, so also was in Benue and the rest. Even though they were Christians, they have always identified with Western Nigeria regardless of whether the leadership was a Muslim or not, until Tinubu jettisoned them for his alliance with the northern Muslims that became the APC. Until the formation of the APC, ACN was the second popular party outside of the core Kanuri ANPP domain.

Dogara, as a former Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, who was elected on an across the religious and ethnic divide, has a national appeal across the country as the speaker.

It is also on record that he is a great grassroots mobilizer and a very successful person in all spheres of life.

In essence, it means he has appeal nationwide. His appeal is a political asset that is unmatched. Dogara’s candidacy SHALL guarantee that Tinubu will not have much problem as a team, not forgetting his youthfulness.

A Fulani Muslim-Muslim ticket for the APC as being promoted will not guarantee the true participation of all, knowing that they and their ethnic NATIONALITIES in the Nigerian nation counts and are relevant in the scheme of things.

For we all know that the Yoruba Muslims are the most liberal amongst all Muslims in the Nigerian nation and that is why the northern/Middlebelt Christians can overlook the fact that another Muslim is being proposed for the Presidency.

A Yoruba can be trusted with a Middlebelt Christian because we see the combination as six and half a dozen, which makes no difference even with their religious divide.

That religious divide does not matter to the Yorubas does not mean that it should not matter to the over 250 ethnic NATIONALITIES in the Middlebelt and others of the north.

Our thinking as a people is formed from our experience in life. Yorubas never experienced what the NATIONALITIES of the Middlebelt has and still experiencing in the hand of the Fulanis.

It is the right of the Christian north and other NATIONALITIES to have their fears and notion respected and considered in a multi-ethnic and diverse nation as Nigeria.

It would be a travesty for Yoruba nation, which is the most humane, just, and accommodating among all other NATIONALITIES in Nigeria to now be used by the colonizers of northern Nigeria to turn Yoruba into what they were created to be.

There were insinuations that Buhari never wanted Tinubu, neither the Caliphate, nor the northern Governors until two weeks, when they, like Paul saw the vision on the way to Damascus.

It is believed that picking Tinubu was not out of love, justice or fair play, and that it was simply knowing what Tinubu said in Abeokuta was an indication that to sideline him was at their political and economic peril, and the sure disintegration of Nigeria.

Ade omoluabi, Jos