Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule has said that the 1999 Constitution does not compel political parties or governments to balance appointments and electoral tickets on religious basis.
The constitution, Sule was said to have said, rather emphasised federal character, ethnic representation and inclusiveness in public appointments.
The governor was speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday.
Sule was reacting to comments made by the vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, Rabiu Kwankwaso, for the 2027 elections on representation and political inclusion.
Kwankwaso’s position was a normal feature of opposition politics, the governor said.
“I think it is normal for senator Kwankwanso who I respect a lot to say that because he’s opposition,” Sule said.
He’s got nothing nice to say. That’s what he has to say.
Constitutional provisions on inclusion, the governor argued, were often read into their real meanings.
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Section 14(3) of the Constitution deals with federal character and equitable representation while section 15 deals with ethnicity and national integration, he said.
He said neither provision on its face required religious balancing.
“It doesn’t talk about religion anywhere. Section 14 did not refer to religion. “Section 15 did not talk about religion,” Sule said.
Sule spoke on the election of President Bola Tinubu and his Vice President, Kashim Shettima on Muslim-Muslim ticket.
He also mentioned the 1993 presidential election in which the late Moshood Abiola and his running mate, Babagana Kingibe, both Muslims, contested.
“You see that both elections have shown that the Muslim-Muslim ticket has won,” the governor said.
I pray Nigeria will one day have a Christian-Christian ticket and it will win.
He said the success of same-faith tickets had shown that Nigerians could vote on issues other than religion.
But Sule said his choice of a Christian deputy governor for Nasarawa State was based on competence and not to satisfy a constitutional religious quota.
“I have always had a Christian as a deputy, Emmanuel Akabe.
It has been a Christian state in Nasarawa all the time. “We considered it necessary because Emmanuel Akabe is capable and our state is not Nigeria.”
The governor argued that the political realities of each state could not always be used as a criterion of national arrangements.
Sule said some of the predominantly Christian states had governors and deputy governors who shared the same faith.
You can’t take a particular state. Take Enugu for example, they are Christian-Christian. Look at Bayelsa, it is Christian-Christian,” he added.
He said political parties and leaders should be allowed to choose candidates based on competence, electoral calculations and the peculiar circumstances of their constituencies and not on religion alone.
