Current estimates put the Christian and Muslim population in Nigeria at almost par, though some estimates give a slight edge to Muslims in the country. While the north is predominantly Muslim, the south is predominantly Christian. Yet, these broad categories ignore significant populations of both faiths across both sections of the country. For instance, the Middle Belt and parts of the North East have significant Christian populations, while the Southwest has significant Muslim population. The balance of the faiths has encouraged a balancing act in the choice of political leaders but there are fears that if current projections are right Christians will have a hard time leading this country in future.

According to the Pew Research Center, Nigeria’s delicate population balance between Christians and Muslims will tip significantly over the coming years. It predicts that by 2060, some 40 years away, 60.5 percent of the country’s projected population of 283.2 million people will be Muslims, while Christians will make up just about 37 percent. Four years ago in 2015, Muslims made up 50 percent as against 48.1 percent for Christians.

The implication of the large shift in the population is significant in political terms, especially for Nigeria where political leadership at the national level and in several states have been coloured by partisan interests such as religion and ethnicity. In the country’s history there have only been four heads of state/presidents who were Christians and seven Muslim heads of state/presidents. The Christian heads of state and presidents were General Aguiyi Ironsi, General Yakubu Gowon, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr Goodluck Jonathan. The Muslim leaders have been General Murtala Muhammed, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, General Ibrahim Babangida, General Sani Abacha, General Abdusalam Abubakar, President Umar Musa Yar’Adua and President Muhammadu Buhari. While all of the military heads of state came through coup d’états facilitated by their positions in the military, the political leaders have emerged through an unwritten understanding that power should rotate between the north and south and between Muslim and Christian to breed inclusiveness and cohesion. So far that principle has held at the national level. Given the ethnic and religious mix at the national level and in many states, there has been a deliberate attempt to balance the leadership between the two faiths such that there is a Christian deputy when a Muslim is president and vice versa. This assures most people that at the highest level of decision-making they are represented. This has been the practice over the years but at no time is it more necessary than now when the country is buffeted on all sides by conflicts and cries of partisanship. Yet, the signal from certain quarters raise fears and call us to vigilance.

In the last general election the Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai went against the grain of this basic understanding to present a Muslim-Muslim ticket, which eventually won the election in a state with a significant Christian population. While the governor called his decision an informed one based on competence, many people saw it as pushing the envelope too much. In the words of Femi Fani-Kayode when governor’s decision was made November last year: “It is wrong, divisive, dangerous, provocative and insulting for Nasir el-Rufai to field a Muslim/Muslim ticket in the governorship election in a state like Kaduna in which 50 percent of the people are Christians and in which thousands of Christians were butchered over the last three years.”

Indeed, we have had cases in the past, like the famous ticket of the Social Democratic Party in 1993 which had both Muslims – Chief MKO Abiola and Alhaji Baba Gana Kingibe – on the ballot, and which is generally believed to have won the annulled election. But Nigeria has drifted terribly in recent years because of nepotism in government and the reality that political leaders have exploited their leadership positions to apportion favours on partisan parameters, including religion. A clear case in point is in the distribution of the local governments across the country, which has seen less populated dominant Muslim states with more local governments than states in the south with significant Christian population. These were largely enabled by the military governments but they have come to stay as immutable facts of the Nigerian reality, perpetuating a culture of discrimination against Christians.

A second reality of the adverse effect of sectional dominance is the nepotism that has attended the federal administration such that the key security agencies are all headed by Muslims. This has led to cries of sectionalism and, in some cases, pogroms, from minorities and Christians. Over the last few years, criminals working in tandem with herdsmen have terrorized communities across the Christian states, especially in the north, burning churches, razing villages and something akin to religious cleansing. These security challenges have raised fears of exclusion across sections not in power. .

President Buhari has already kicked off his second term in office, which will run till 2023, by which time the presidency should go to the south and to the Christian faith. Already, permutations are afoot in both the ruling All Progressives Congress and opposition Peoples Democratic Party on the succession. Christians must insist on their due right, despite the obvious undercurrent to raise the ‘competence’ argument as a smokescreen to continue the tradition of nepotism and sectional dominance. Balancing the presidency and political offices are central to guaranteeing inclusion in Nigeria. The country is too fragile, with widespread insecurity, reports of ethnic and religious cleansing and partisanship to disregard the zoning principle and religious sensibilities. The recently released 2019 Fragile States Index ranks Nigeria as the 14th most fragile state in the world, with a score of 98.5 out of a maximum 120 points, even much worse than Mali. Insecurity and marginalization of ethnic and religious groups have not helped. There are fears that more crises will come if equity takes a flight in the sharing of political offices. Already, the signs are ominous. The National Assembly has just been inaugurated and for the first time since the return to democracy, the heads of the two arms – Senate and House of Representatives – are Muslims. Fears have rightly been raised by different political and pressure groups because it means that for the first time Muslims now occupy three of the four leading political offices at the federal level, with the vice president being the only non-Muslim. Added to the fact that the Chief Justice of Nigeria is also a Muslim and key military and intelligence agencies are led by Muslims, the possibility of further tension and cries of marginalization are not farfetched. This permissiveness must not set the tone for the presidency in 2023. Christians must insist on a shift not just in the geopolitical origin of the next president but on a Christian president.
http://www.signalng.com/2023-case-for-a-christian-president-by-zikeyi-john/

These points raised here is what makes me feel sometimes that the country should be decided.
But I want a Christian president to repeat what Buhari has done, i.e feel every important position with Christians. I really want to see their reactions.
The most painful part of it all is that they are not interested in finding solutions to what is happening.

Stop posting shit yarinya[b][/b]

All Nigeria needs is a President that Fears GOD and is Willing to Be Used by GOD..

Nigeria needs a Donald Trump..

theyve started with their nonsense population statistics.. few days ago I read how insurgency is making northern Muslim especially in the NE to convert to christianity... and now these ones are here with their rubbish.. I cant wait for population census .. to put an end to this rubbish debate..

KNOWMORE56:
These points raised here is what makes me feel sometimes that the country should be decided.
But I want a Christian president to repeat what Buhari has done, i.e feel every important position with Christians. I really want to see their reactions.
The most painful part of it all is that they are not interested in finding solutions to what is happening.

Christians in Nigeria don't av the strength to do that

Psalmy2cute:
theyve started with their nonsense population statistics.. few days ago I read how insurgency is making northern Muslim especially in the NE to convert to christianity... and now these ones are here with their rubbish.. I cant wait for population census .. to put an end to this rubbish debate..

it's not nonsense

Righteousness89:
All Nigeria needs is a President that Fears GOD and is Willing to Be Used by GOD..

Nigeria needs a Donald Trump..

or Putin

oxiide22:
Stop posting shit yarinya[b][/b]

mind ur business

Yenefer:
it's not nonsense

its nonsense

Psalmy2cute:
its nonsense

why

Yenefer:
why

because even I can aswell wake up one morning and write why I think Islam is dying in the north east and south west most especially.. most northerners seems to think Muslims are dominant in the sw.. but that's not true at all.. on what I've seen .. others may have a diff opinion.. we cant be certain of anything, until population census.. until that whatever blogger put down on the internet are far from facts .. even athiesm is on the rise in Nigeria..

Yenefer:
Christians in Nigeria don't av the strength to do that

your post here makes me feel like I'm wasting my time chatting with an idiotic yarinya .. like the poster above said Good day

Yenefer:
mind ur business

don't be upset yarinya mekyau jin baki nayi, inasonki ne kawai. Miye sunanki? Nazifa ne ko hanifa?

Lol. Who cares? We are not complaining about Muslims ruling. That's what we want na. Abba Kyari 2023 or El-Rufai has my vote sha

Psalmy2cute:
because even I can aswell wake up one morning and write why I think Islam is dying in the north east and south west most especially.. most northerners seems to think Muslims are dominant in the sw.. but that's not true at all.. on what I've seen .. others may have a diff opinion.. we cant be certain of anything, until population census.. until that whatever blogger put down on the internet are far from facts .. even athiesm is on the rise in Nigeria..

true

What's The Essense Of Islam Where There Is NO Peace

Yenefer:
why

F3ronyi; so u've jettisoned SLS ambition ?

Psalmy2cute:
theyve started with their nonsense population statistics.. few days ago I read how insurgency is making northern Muslim especially in the NE to convert to christianity... and now these ones are here with their rubbish.. I cant wait for population census .. to put an end to this rubbish debate..

What's nonsense about the stats?
Reputable organisations did the forcasts.
Even if the entire population of Borno State were by a miracle to convert,that still won't tip the scales.

tatatar:

What's nonsense about the stats?
Reputable organisations did the forcasts.
Even if the entire population of Borno State were by a miracle to convert,that still won't tip the scales.

As Christian i dont mind a Muslim/Muslim joint ticket once there are no aspect of the law that are violated and this can put food on my table.

DeViNe007:

As Christian i dont mind a Muslim/Muslim joint ticket once there are no aspect of the law that are violated and this can put food on my table.

I won't mind an Atheist either

tatatar:

What's nonsense about the stats?
Reputable organisations did the forcasts.
Even if the entire population of Borno State were by a miracle to convert,that still won't tip the scales.

what reputable organisation?? does forecast determine the population of a place..? the kind of people we see on Nairaland nowadays ehn chai,..

DeViNe007:

As Christian i dont mind a Muslim/Muslim joint ticket once there are no aspect of the law that are violated and this can put food on my table.

oga I've read through your previous posts on this forum.. you're not a Christian chai Christian impersonator

Yenefer:
Christians in Nigeria don't av the strength to do that

Even though Christians in Nigeria don't have the strength nor need to retaliate in any sense for the real or perceived wrongs of Muslim-led administrations, the fact is that what you call Christianity and most who call themselves Christians in Nigeria are really non-representative of the core beliefs they espouse.

Intellectually and politically lazy souls who profess virtues but will not raise civil action to pursue the Eldorados in their Holy Book while the whole town burns down over their cowardly heads aren't the stuff of 21st century Christianity.

If Apostles Paul, Peter, James etc didn't stick to their guns even at dying point, do you think Christianity would've thrived after Christ? Martin Luther King and the Black Civil Rights Movement didn't have the benefit of an existing democracy as a veritable vehicle to achieving a peaceful, just, progressive and equitable society where all rights including Womens' were respected and protected as against West obtains in Northern Nigeria today but they thrived while Nigerian Christians cower behind keyboards online.

I believe in the sincerity of the Southerners on this thread and kudos to their patriotic and egalitarianist leanings as they've espoused their need for simply a "just, competent and creative leadership regardless of its religious affiliations" but does the average voting youth highly brainwashed on pro-Northern ethno-religious rhetoric think same? And if the current equation persists, in which generation will the various federal character evils perpetrated against the South and the North's (non-Hausa/Fulani) indigenous people groups/tribes be corrected?

One underlying common denominator of Nigerian politics is that you pro-Christian southerners always divide like your fragmented Christianity's proliferated churches' denominations but the largely pro-Islamic (Hausa/Fulani, Kanuri) North always unites and the forge of that unity is hardly the best of Nigeria's long-term interests. It's always about the North, its dominance, its religion, its right to rule, most times, as it wills unquestioned per its own terms.

Think about that.

Christian president from the East 2023.

chachanga:


Even though Christians in Nigeria don't have the strength nor need to retaliate in any sense for the real or perceived wrongs of Muslim-led administrations, the fact is that what you call Christianity and most who call themselves Christians in Nigeria are really non-representative of the core beliefs they espouse.

Intellectually and politically lazy souls who profess virtues but will not raise civil action to pursue the Eldorados in their Holy Book while the whole town burns down over their cowardly heads aren't the stuff of 21st century Christianity.

If Apostles Paul, Peter, James etc didn't stick to their guns even at dying point, do you think Christianity would've thrived after Christ? Martin Luther King and the Black Civil Rights Movement didn't have the benefit of an existing democracy as a veritable vehicle to achieving a peaceful, just, progressive and equitable society where all rights including Womens' were respected and protected as against West obtains in Northern Nigeria today but they thrived while Nigerian Christians cower behind keyboards online.

I believe in the sincerity of the Southerners on this thread and kudos to their patriotic and egalitarianist leanings as they've espoused their need for simply a "just, competent and creative leadership regardless of its religious affiliations" but does the average voting youth highly brainwashed on pro-Northern ethno-religious rhetoric think same? And if the current equation persists, in which generation will the various federal character evils perpetrated against the South and the North's (non-Hausa/Fulani) indigenous people groups/tribes be corrected?

One underlying common denominator of Nigerian politics is that you pro-Christian southerners always divide like your fragmented Christianity's proliferated churches' denominations but the largely pro-Islamic (Hausa/Fulani, Kanuri) North always unites and the forge of that unity is hardly the best of Nigeria's long-term interests. It's always about the North, its dominance, its religion, its right to rule, most times, as it wills unquestioned per its own terms.

Think about that.

well said

Christian president like obasanjo and jonathan.

oxiide22:
Stop posting shit yarinya[b][/b]

sharrap

kurupt1:
sharrap

gerraout!

Yenefer:
true

are u Muslim or Christian?

oxiide22:
are u Muslim or Christian?

she's obviously muslim

oxiide22:
are u Muslim or Christian?

Muslim