Dr Paul Enenche, Senior Pastor of Dunamis International Gospel Centre, has strongly rejected suggestions that Christianity occupies a subordinate position to another religion in Nigeria, responding during a Sunday service in Abuja on August 16, 2026, to remarks attributed to Sheikh Sani Yahaya Jingir, a prominent Islamic cleric and advocate of the continuation of a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket ahead of the 2027 elections.

Enenche’s comments have added a fresh religious dimension to an increasingly prominent political debate, coming after Jingir publicly reaffirmed support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima to continue as a Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2027.

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In his sermon, Enenche described any suggestion that Christians should be regarded as secondary in Nigeria as unacceptable and warned against statements he believed could deepen religious tensions.

“I was away for the crusade this past week, and I heard from a friend what was going on, where I think an insane man came up to say that Christianity is subordinate to any other religion in this country,” Enenche said.

The pastor continued in forceful terms, insisting that Christianity has a substantial presence across the country and should not be treated as politically or socially inferior.

“Christianity is not secondary, and no group of religious fanatics will ever make it secondary,” he declared.

Enenche also urged security agencies to pay attention to public statements that could inflame religious sentiment, arguing that provocative rhetoric should not be allowed to threaten national stability.

The comments were accompanied by a strongly worded message posted alongside a video of the sermon on Enenche’s X account.

The pastor warned what he described as “agents of the devil” against taking the Christian community for granted and said the Church would continue to endure and advance.

The remarks came against the backdrop of Jingir’s renewed advocacy for a Muslim-Muslim ticket.

Jingir, chairman of the Council of Ulama of the Jama’atu Izalatil Bid’ah Wa’iqamatis Sunnah, popularly known as JIBWIS, had previously reaffirmed his support for the Tinubu-Shettima pairing at a JIBWIS national seminar in Jos in February 2026.

“We are not people who break promises. On Election Day, we voted for a Muslim-Muslim ticket,” Jingir said at the time, adding that he expected Tinubu to retain Shettima.

Jingir’s position is not new. His support for the existing presidential arrangement has been part of the political conversation surrounding the 2027 election, particularly among northern Muslim constituencies.

The debate is significant because the 2023 presidential election marked the first time since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999 that a major winning presidential ticket was composed entirely of Muslims.

Tinubu, a Muslim from the South-West, selected Shettima, a Muslim from the North-East, as his running mate after the All Progressives Congress won the election.

The arrangement attracted opposition from sections of Nigeria’s Christian community, who argued that the ticket did not sufficiently reflect the country’s religious diversity.

Supporters, however, maintained that competence, political compatibility and constitutional eligibility should take precedence over religious balancing.

That disagreement has remained unresolved as political parties and alliances begin positioning themselves for 2027.

The constitutional framework provides an important context for the dispute.

Section 38 of Nigeria’s Constitution guarantees freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the right to manifest and propagate one’s religion.

Section 42 also prohibits discrimination on religious grounds in the treatment of citizens by government.

The Constitution also states that neither the Federal Government nor a state government may adopt a religion as its official state religion.

Those provisions mean that political advocacy based on religious identity can exist within the broader constitutional protection of expression and association, while the state remains bound by principles of religious equality.

The National Human Rights Commission has similarly described freedom of religion and belief as a fundamental right, while stressing that the exercise of such rights must remain within the law and should not infringe upon the rights of others.

Against that legal backdrop, the disagreement between Enenche and Jingir is fundamentally political as well as religious.

Jingir’s argument centres on maintaining a ticket that he believes has worked effectively and should continue into another election cycle.

Enenche’s objection focuses more directly on the implications of religious hierarchy and the potential effect of divisive rhetoric on Christians and the wider Nigerian public.

Neither position, by itself, determines the eventual structure of the 2027 presidential contest. Candidate selection remains a political decision for parties and their supporters, while the electorate ultimately determines the outcome.

The exchange nevertheless highlights the delicate nature of religion in Nigerian politics.

Nigeria’s large Christian and Muslim populations have historically lived alongside traditional religious communities, but political competition can sharpen religious sensitivities, particularly when major political offices are discussed through an explicitly faith-based lens.

Jingir’s influence also extends beyond electoral politics. He is a prominent figure within the Izala movement, one of northern Nigeria’s major Islamic reform movements, and has for years been an influential voice on religious and political questions.

Academic research identifies Jingir as a leading figure of the Jos faction of the Izala movement and a significant northern Nigerian religious authority.

That background helps explain why his political statements attract attention beyond his immediate religious constituency.

Enenche, meanwhile, commands a substantial Christian following through Dunamis International Gospel Centre, giving his response considerable reach among Pentecostal Christians.

His latest intervention therefore comes at a politically sensitive moment, when religious identity is already becoming intertwined with discussions about presidential succession, regional balance and the opposition to the ruling All Progressives Congress.

The risk for political actors is that legitimate disagreement over representation can become framed as a contest between religious communities rather than competing visions of governance.

For ordinary Nigerians, that distinction matters.

The country has repeatedly experienced the consequences of religious and ethnic tensions, making responsible language from influential clerics particularly important during an election cycle.

Enenche’s intervention is unlikely to end the argument over the 2027 ticket. If anything, it underscores how deeply questions of faith and political representation remain embedded in Nigeria’s electoral politics.

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For now, both religious constituencies retain the constitutional right to express their political preferences. The more difficult challenge will be ensuring that those preferences can be debated vigorously without turning political competition into religious hostility.