‘Will You Choose Christian Over a Muslim?’: Kano Cleric Draws Religious Battle Line Against Obi NDC Ticket
‘Will You Choose Christian Over a Muslim?’: Kano Cleric Draws Religious Battle Line Against Obi NDC Ticket
Prominent cleric Sheikh Barrister Ishaq Adam Kano has rejected the reported alliance of Peter Obi with Rabiu Kwankwaso in the NDC, warning northern Muslims against choosing what he called an “Non-Muslim” over a Muslim president, no matter the Muslim leader’s failings.
In a viral video address, Sheikh Kano said some northerners seeking political change are “seeking to bring in a non-muslim who is even more dangerous than the current one. He’s worse than the current leader—I mean the president.” Referring to Obi, he added: “The man who, back in 2023, went and collaborated with Christians… Saying they must defeat us; if they had succeeded, we would have been in trouble.”
The cleric accused Obi of hostility toward the North: “A man who, while he was governor, did everything against us. And now they say this is the man to be brought back and re-elected? It’s like falling from the sky into a well. This is impossible; it will not happen.”
He framed the 2027 choice as religious: “And now if it comes to choosing between a Muslim president and this non-muslim, who will you choose? Will you go and choose a chriistian over a Muslim? And his tribe has a malicious agenda against us Hausas, the Hausa-Fulani.”
Sheikh Kano acknowledged northern decline under the current government but insisted on religious solidarity: “It’s not that we are blindly supporting this government. What is happening is what we dislike; our region is regressing… But… no matter how unjust a Muslim might be, that I would choose a non-muslim. I won’t do it. I will never vote for a non-muslim.”
He advocated the “lesser evil” doctrine: “Between this one and that one, who is more dangerous? Then we choose the ‘lesser evil.’ We accept that this one might harm us. But if his harm is less than the other’s greater harm, then we set aside the greater harm and choose the lesser one.”
Warning against Obi’s candidacy, he declared: “Therefore, we will never accept an Christian being brought to us. Especially a non-muslim who is hostile toward Northerners; we will not accept that.” He concluded: “They should do their worst, but Allah will also do His part, in this world or the hereafter.”
The comments land days after Obi and Kwankwaso formally joined the NDC, a move NDC leader Seriake Dickson called a “powerful convergence.” Sheikh Kano’s address now injects a sharp religious litmus test into NDC’s northern expansion plans ahead of 2027.
