Letter to the Church in Nigeria: From ‘Balanced Ticket’ to a Balanced Federation
This letter is prompted by the recent stance of the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), a leading Nigerian research and advocacy group, which rejected the “ *undeserved* ” papal invitation extended to President Bola Tinubu to attend the inauguration of the 267th Pope, now known as Pope Leo XIV.
The Yoruba Referendum Committee does not dismiss Intersociety’s call as a mere protest, rather we see it as a wake-up call to both the leadership and laity of the Church in Nigeria.
Intersociety, known for its rigorous documentation of human rights abuses, provided alarming statistics about Christian persecution in Northern Nigeria. However. beyond the compelling statistics on the persecution of Christians in Northern Nigeria lies a deeper issue. to wit: Nigeria’s failure to recognize its diverse Ethnic Nationalities as foundational units of the Federation.
The Yoruba Referendum Committee emphasizes that the controversy underscores Nigeria’s unresolved “National Question”, to wit: the deliberate erasure of its Peoples as Constituent units, replaced by impersonal administrative entities called “states”, a legacy entrenched in the fraudulent 1999 Constitution, which falsely declares that “Nigeria is a Federation of States and FCT.”
We now have a system that substitutes real communities with artificial “states,”; this deception is central to Nigeria’s dysfunction, and the Church has been largely silent.
The Church in Nigeria is not only complicit by association with power, as Intersociety argues, but more fundamentally by its failure to advance the cause of its people.
It has neglected the intersection of Faith and Nationality a failure that leaves Christians, especially those in the North, politically voiceless and socially vulnerable. Yet. Christians are part of specific Ethnic Nationalities whose identities are erased in national discourse. Official narratives often reduce mass atrocities to generic “clashes” between “Christians and Muslims,” or “banditry”, glossing over the nationaityl identities of the victims.
Christians in Northern Nigeria are not a monolith; they belong to specific Ethnic-nationalities. Yet, official narratives blur their identity, often grouping victims as “Christian and Muslim” without acknowledging their national heritage. Meanwhile, Northern Muslims recognize the Fulani Sultan of Sokoto as their ethno-religious leader, giving them both spiritual and national representation. Christians have no such leadership structure, rendering them invisible in national power equations. This absence weakens their collective voice and political agency.
This vacuum is even more critical in Northern territories where both Muslim and Christian communities are victims of terrorism. Recognizing them by their true national identities is key to empowering them to resist oppression on their own terms, ethno-nationally.
Even among Northern Muslims who are also victims of violence, recognition of their ethno-national identities would empower them to resist terror on their own cultural and territorial terms. The displacement of Christian communities and seizure of ancestral lands are not incidental, they are part of a calculated strategy of territorial domination by Fulani elites under the guise of national unity.
The dispossession of ancestral lands and farmlands in Northern Nigeria, as documented by Intersociety, is part of a long-standing project of Fulani hegemony to dominate territory through displacement and homogenization.
As noted in our May 12, 2025 Bulletin:
“ _insecurity in Nigeria is a political enterprise._ _People are being displaced from their_ _lands, particularly in the North, while the_ _government keeps them in IDP camps, thereby_ stripping them of _political representation_ . _When_ _Northern leaders meet, as the Northern_ _Governors have done, those lands are counted_ as part of the “North,” _but_ the original, displaced inhabitants _remain_ unrepresented. _Instead, power remains_ _with those complicit in their displacement._ _Meanwhile, perpetrators are reintegrated under_ _the “repentant” doctrine, sustaining cycles of_ _violence and preserving Northern dominance_ _at_ _both national and state levels.”_
During the 2023 elections, the Church’s response was limited to opposing the “Muslim-Muslim Ticket” and demanding a religiously “balanced” ticket, that is. a Christian-Muslim or Muslim-Christian pairing. This reaction was shortsighted. A balanced ticket in a fundamentally imbalanced Federation is mere window dressing and meaningless.
The Church must now move from advocating for religious balance in politics to demanding a Balanced Federation based on the recognition of Nigeria’s indigenous Nationalities. It must now shift its focus from religious parity on election issues to Constitutional justice for Nigeria’s Nationalities. It is not enough to seek symbolic inclusion in a broken system. The Church must push for Constitutional Restructuring through Nationality Referendums, the only viable path to justice, peace, and development. The Christian community must rally not around candidates, but around a cause: *the* *Re-Federalization of Nigeria through* *Nationality Referendums* .
President Tinubu may continue to promote his economic reforms, fund various central programs, enable FAAC-fueled state spending—none of these addresses the foundational crisis: Nigeria has become an illegitimate union of unequal partners which cannot be ameliorated by any type of zonal electoral permutations. Nigeria’s faulty foundation can only be corrected with a Federation of Nationalities, not states as the only path to peace and progress.
Africa’s underdevelopment stems, in large part, from adopting Nation-State models imposed by Europe that ignore the continent’s cultural and national realities. Nigeria, like much of Africa, cannot thrive without first confronting this inherited dysfunction. The Church, which helped lead Europe’s political reformation, must now help chart a similar course in Nigeria.
In theory, Nigeria is a democracy where citizens “render unto Caesar” through their votes, taxes, and participation in governance. But in practice, the state ignores the people’s authority, weaponizing public finance against them.
This contradiction demands the Church reexamine its role: is it truly rendering unto God the things of God, namely, restoring the people’s God-given identities and sovereignty?
Christians must reclaim their civic and spiritual agency. They must act on Christ’s command for justice, truth, and peace. This begins not with electoral cosmetics, but with a systemic reset: a Balanced Federation built on the recognition of Nigeria’s Ethnic Nationalities.
Christians must assert both their civic and spiritual responsibility. Voting is not the issue, voting with vision is. For too long, Nigerian Christians have voted for “balanced tickets” that failed to deliver security, dignity, or justice.
The record is clear: Nigeria has had Christian Presidents and balanced tickets for decades. None resolved the persecution, marginalization, or insecurity Christians face today. Repeating the same broken formulas is not godly wisdom, it is political delusion.
As the saying goes, insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result. History repeats itself for those who refuse to learn.
President Obasanjo, a Christian, presided over the dismantling of ethno-national power centers in the South and ignored the rise of Islamic extremism in the North. He even dismissed the Christian Association of Nigeria.
President Jonathan, another Christian, flirted with reform but failed to let the people drive the process. One delegate, Sir Olaniwun Ajayi, infamously said, “we went there to play.” The entire national conference became a mockery.
Godly wisdom demands we break this cycle. Christians must still vote—but now with purpose; not to prop up old structures, but to forge a new path that reflects justice, truth, and equity.We are past symbolic inclusion. The Church must lead the movement toward structural justice through Nationality Referendums and a Re-Federalized Nigeria.
The Church must now fully commit itself to the quest for Nationality Referendums and a true Federation of Nationalities as the foundation of Nigeria’s future. Anything less is complicity in our collective destruction.
This means supporting candidates, movements, and policies that advance the cause of a Re-Federalized Nigeria, built on Nationality Referendums, not fake state lines drawn by colonial and military rulers.
This must become the central plank of the Church’s public engagement heading into 2027.
The time for symbolic participation is over. The Church must now lead the demand for structural *Re-Formation* of Nigeria. Nothing less will suffice.
Editorial Board
Yoruba Referendum Committee.
