During her recent trip to the United States, First Lady Remi Tinubu stated that Muslims outnumber Christians in Nigeria as she explained and justified her husband, President Bola Tinubu’s Muslim-Muslim ticket.
Mrs. Tinubu, a pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God, told *The Free Press* that her husband’s decision to run on a same-faith ticket was a political calculation.
Explaining the choice to contest the 2023 election with a Muslim-Muslim ticket—an arrangement that drew significant opposition from Nigerian Christians—Mrs. Tinubu said a southern candidate cannot realistically choose a Christian running mate.
“Let’s face it, the Muslims are more than us,” Mrs. Tinubu said. “If a southerner wants to run for president, politics is a game of numbers. You have to pick another Muslim. You can’t pick a Christian.”
The First Lady emphasized that in the Presidential Villa, she looks after the interests of both Christians and Muslims.
“I’m a Christian in the Presidential Villa. I take care of the interests of Christians, and I also take care of Muslims. That is what life should be. We have to respect everybody, irrespective of religion,” she said.
Mrs. Tinubu, who attended the National Prayer Breakfast in the U.S. last week, described her mission as an effort to “make some clarifications about recent hype on social media that there is a Christian genocide.”
She noted that the Christian genocide narrative gained traction shortly after her husband’s administration steered Nigeria out of economic turbulence marked by soaring food prices and a declining naira.
In another interview with The Hill during her U.S. visit, Mrs. Tinubu called global concerns about the persecution of Christians in Nigeria “propaganda.”
However, she appealed for increased U.S. military support against terrorists and bandits in northern Nigeria, describing the Christmas Day military strikes ordered by former President Donald Trump as a “blessing” for the West African nation.
