Not since MKO Abiola’s choice of Babagana Kingie as his running mate in 1993 has the religious makeup of a presidential ticket piqued Nigerians’ interest as much as Bola Tinubu’s choice of Kashim Shettima. It immediately enraged some Christians and enraged some Muslims.
For a long time, Muslim clerical investment in the Tinubu-Shettima ticket was proportional to Christian opposition to it, at least in the Northwest. For example, in late 2022, an audio recording of a northern Christian went viral on WhatsApp, claiming that the Tinubu-Shettima ticket’s victory or defeat in 2023 would be a referendum on the numerical strength of Christians and Muslims in Nigeria.
Of course, religionization of voting behavior was extremely shallow and simplistic, not to mention reductionist. Many people vote for reasons other than religious convictions. The audio promoted Peter Obi as the “Christian” candidate, and both Tinubu and Atiku will receive a large number of Christian votes.
But that audio, and others like it, sparked a backlash of reciprocal religious particularism from previously politically aloof Salafist Muslim clerics in the Hausaphone North, who now preach that the Tinubu-Shettima ticket—or, as they call it, the Musilim-Musilim ticket—is a religious imperative, and that Muslims should support it to signal Islam’s supremacy in Nigeria. That’s also silly, superficial nonsense that ignores the complexities of voting behavior and the variety of impulses that drive people to vote.
In any case, the discussion about the Tinubu-Shettima ticket’s same-faith nature appears to be shifting to whether Tinubu is, in fact, a Muslim. Tinubu’s numerous stumbles with reciting Srat al-Ftiah, the first chapter of the Qur’an, precipitate this discursive shift. In one case, he said “bismillah rahmanir rahim” before “auzubillah minashaitan ni rajeem,” rather than the other way around.
In another case, he said “auzubillah minashaitan ni rajeem, bismillahir rahmanir rahim” and was unable to continue to the next verse. In his confusion, he attempted to translate the verse from Arabic into English, but erred and even said “God, the father of all,” which is both an incorrect translation of “Alhamdu lillahi Rabbil ‘Alamin” (which actually translates as “Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Universe”) and a doctrinal outrage in Islam.
Surat Al-Ikhl, the four-verse 112th chapter of the Quran, is considered by many Muslim traditions to be worth up to 33% of the Quran because of its theological importance to Islam. It specifically states that Allah has not begotten (i.e., is not a father) nor was he begotten. It is one of the most significant doctrinal distinctions between Christianity and Islam. Many Muslims have questioned Tinubu’s Muslim faith after he called Allah “father” during a speech to Muslims in Kaduna.
The latest trending video shows him straining excessively hard—and failing— to recite “Alhamdu lillahi Rabbil ‘Alamin,” the second verse of Sūrat al-Fātiḥah, which he had erroneously translated as “God, the father of all” in a previous mishap. Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a pattern, as the saying goes.
As I stated in my February 7, 2015 column, “Sambo: A Muslim Bigot Who Can’t Recite the First Chapter of the Qur’an,” Muslims recite the Fatihah at least 17 times per day during prayers, making it the most recited chapter in the Qur’an. That is why it is second nature to the majority of Muslims. That is also why people question Muslims who cannot recite the Quran.
Even Christians who had previously expressed righteous rage over Tinubu’s insensitivity in selecting a fellow Muslim as his running mate in our religiously pluralistic country are now taking a step back. They want to know if Tinubu is a Muslim, or if his choice of a Muslim running mate was influenced by the fact that he is not a Muslim.
Tinubu, on the other hand, strikes me as a cultural Muslim. His hometown of Iragbiji in Osun State was predominantly Muslim when he was growing up there in the 1960s. He went to ile kewu (which Hausa speakers call makarantar allo), an informal school for Islamic learning, like most other kids in town. The manner in which he says “auzubillah minashaitan ni rajeem, bismillahir rahmanir rahim” demonstrates that he was born into Islam and learned to say it at a young age.
I believe he stopped being an observant Muslim after leaving Iragbiji for Lagos (and later for the United States), but he hasn’t given up his Muslim identity. His blunders with reciting the first chapter of the Qur’an, in my opinion, do not indicate that he is not a Muslim; rather, they indicate that he has not been praying for the majority of his post-Iragbiji life.
My father, who formally and informally taught Arabic and Islamic Studies in primary school and at home, used to warn me that if I stopped reciting the Qur’an for a day, the Qur’an would desert me for four days. He was unwittingly introducing me to Jean Lamarck’s law of use and disuse. What we use the most grows and lasts. What we don’t use fades and shrivels with time.
Daily Nigerian publisher Jaafar Jaafar advised Tinubu’s handlers to discourage him from attempting to demonstrate his Muslim credentials in northern Nigeria by reciting Qur’anic verses he clearly cannot recall. In the Hausaphone Muslim north, it is preferable to be thought a Muslim, even if that Muslim is “inauthentic,” than to speak and dispel all doubt.
According to my informal observations, the dominant chatter in northern Nigerian Muslim discursive spheres now revolves around the suspicion that Tinubu is not a Muslim. Or that if he is one, he does not pray, which many consider to be the same difference. Some speculate that he is a closet Christian because he refers to God as “father” and his wife and children are Christians.
However, identity, including religious identity, is complex and not easily reduced to a single metric. Tinubu, if he wanted to be a Christian, would have declared it publicly. Change or ambiguity of faith is not a political death sentence in Yoruba land (including Osun State, by far the most Muslim state in Yoruba land). After all, Osun’s governor, Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke, is both a Christian and a Muslim. I once referred to him as a Chrislim.
Tinubu, as I stated in a previous article in 2022, is a nominal Muslim who is effectively non-religious. For that reason, he chose a northern Muslim running mate. Tinubu, who is married to a pastor and has all of his children who are Christians, did not publicly identify with Islam until recently. He considers himself first and foremost a Yoruba man, then a nominal Muslim.
Tinubu, however, is not alone. Most political elites in both the North and South profess religion solely for public consumption and to conform to societal expectations. This is not limited to Nigeria. Both Barack Obama and Donald Trump, for example, are atheists who were forced to subordinate their free thought and embrace open displays of religiosity in order to be elected.
Obama’s mother was an atheist, as were his maternal grandparents, who raised him. (Even his Harvard-educated Kenyan father, who did not raise him, was an atheist despite being born a Muslim). He didn’t come into contact with religion until he began dating Michelle Obama in the late 1980s.
Trump, too, is not a Christian, has contempt for Christians, does not attend church, and has only a rudimentary understanding of Christian doctrine. However, American evangelicals adored him because he said exactly what they wanted to hear.
Tinubu’s issue is that Islamic rituals and performances must be learned and internalized. They cannot be imitated.
