Nigerians can no longer pretend that they don’t have a problem with religion. They can’t wish it away any longer. Any attempt to do so would only bring doomsday nearer.
It is fashionable today to brand those who defend their religion against threat from other religion as bigots. Those who do this are the greatest hypocrites you can have. When it favours them, they say religion must not matter in our national discourse. When it does not, they cry foul. Religion is part of life and it would continue to matter.
Tried as he did, China’s Mao could not stop religion in China. I sympathise with Kadaria Ahmed, a reputable journalist of international standard who took to the social media to warn her colleagues of the dangers their writing can do to bring about war. Should the media report issues about religious oppression or look the other side? I think the media have the duty to report objectively on any matter.
Nigerians should take very serious note of religious happenings in the South-east and South-west. The South-west where the Yoruba live has for long been the part of the country to showcase best example in religious tolerance, but unknown to the nation because some of the Yoruba have kept a hypocrital face, the usual peace is giving way and tension is mounting.
Yoruba believe their family relation is stronger than religious relationship. For example, as Yoruba person, nothing would make me take arms against my family members who are in the other religion, but we have taken this assumption for granted for too long and we need to take a second look at it. The assumption may not hold again.
In the days before the Scripture Union movement when the orthodox churches dominated Christianity, it was possible to maintain that kind of attitude. The orthodox churches were not too emphatic on the Bible. It was common to find people who attended those churches and still practise their traditional religion. They go to church on Sunday but when problem shows up, they knew their way to juju shrines. The same applies to the Muslims. They are in the Mosques but also practise their traditional religions.
Need for tolerance
Things are however changing rapidly. The SU movement has given rise to the pentecostal movement which strictly emphasises everything in the Bible. Biblical Christianity is a call to go into the world and make disciples of all nations. They can’t sit in their churches; they must be on the move always telling people about their Christ.
Muslims find their guts disgusting. They don’t want them to distribute their tracts in the buses which they commonly commune in. For the Muslims, everybody should restrict the practice of their religion to places of worship, but the Muslims don’t know that while the Mosques are regarded as the houses of God, the buildings where Christians gather is no more than classrooms where they meet to learn about Christ. Christians, themselves are the houses where God live. The outside world is where they live the life they are called to and preach the gospel they are called to. Of necessity, there must be some form of understanding. There would also be conflict except there is a means of preventing it.
No beans cake seller wants the other to set up shop. The profit of one is the loss of the other. A Christian gained is a Muslim lost and vice versa; therefore conflict would necessarily ensue if necessary provisions are not made to forestall it. Among Muslims, different groups are rising that take the tenets of the Koran very serious. They want to practise it as it is. Such groups have found attraction among youths especially those in tertiary institutions. They are educated and sophisticated. In the Yoruba land, they are radical and challenge moderate Islam which is the practice of their parents. Yoruba parents warn their wards not to enlist in such radical groups but many are not listening. They want to live according to the tenents of the Koran as they read it. They won’t take bribe for example, whereas their parents may see bribery as a way of augmenting their income and bringing some money home. While the older adults would not emphasise Jihad, the youth would emphasise it and are ready to fight to defend their religion.
In the South-east, Islam is spreading in leaps and bounds. Now Mosques are springing up everywhere. It would have been very nice, afterall everybody should be free to adopt any faith of their choice, but the regret is that the Igbo who live in the North where Islam is predominant are not accorded the same right. Igbo are predominantly Christians and they preach their faith in the North only at the pain of death and destruction of their peaceful business. Mujahideen Asari Dokubo was a member of Deeper Life Church, a Bible- based church with emphasis on strict adherence to the scriptures until he was reportedly recruited to be trained somewhere in the Arab world as a Jihadist. His religion is today mixed with a fight for the control of oil which is found under the soil of his people in the South-south. Asari Dokubo is at once a Jihadist and a liberation warior.
So, Nigeria is always sitting on a keg of religious gun power which could explode at any time. It is the desire of majority of Nigerians that their nation remains one but President Muhammadu Buhari has not helped matters as he seems to have lost the goodwill because of his actions and inactions.
Tinubu and APC’S Muslim-Muslim ticket has further brought the issue of religion to the surface and threatened to engulf Nigeria in serious secretarian conflict. If we would not be consumed by religious war, it is essential to sit and consider the issue with the seriousness it deserves. We must stop to live in denial. I’m sure all the Yoruba that are supporting Bola Tinubu’s agenda, both Muslims and Christians are doing so for purely tribal reasons. They pretend to be liberals in religious matters but they are liars.
And the only thing they can get from it is a psychological comfort: ‘my brother is the president’, even if that brother would only take care of his close circle of friends and family. But must the nation go up in flames because of the unbridled ambition of one man to help himself? To tackle our religious problems, we must seriously think about making Nigeria seriously secular, not the mockery of secularity we have now. There are currently 73 references to Sharia in our constitution and few mention of Islam. They must be expunged. All Nigerians must be free in deed to hold their faith and propagate it without hinderance. Our laws must be supreme. It would be a serious offence for anybody to declare the nation or any part of it religious. The penalty for any governor who offend that provison would be to loose his seat. Yerima Sani of Zamfara state did it in 1999 and nothing was done to him. He became an encouragement to other states in the North to similarly declare Sharia. Now even Islamic clerics are saying that their Sharia is political just to win elections, but the nation is paying in loss of lives and waste of resources that would have been used for vital development.
Religious cautions
No public officer must attend any place of worship with official paraphenalia. Government must stop sending anybody to Jerusalem or Mecca. Individuals should walk to the embassies, obtain their visas and travel. Infraction should be visited with heavy penalty. There must be no Church or Mosque in any Government House. Existing ones must be converted to offices. All schools seized from their previous missionary owners must be returned. No intending public officer must visit a Church or Mosque. No government must donate money to a Church or Mosque. It must be a crime for any organisation or individual to ask in any form for a Nigerian’s religion. Nobody must propagate any religion by abusing the other religion. Our constitution and laws commonly agreed to by our representatives must be supreme to any other law from whatever source. Any government officer who declare higher allegiance to any other law must face sanction. Opening of meetings and conferences by pastors, bishops or Imams or sheiks become unconstitutional. Declaration of fatwa on anybody or institution must be outlawed.
Meeting must commence only after the National Anthem. Nobody must invade the place of worship of another religion. All political actors must pay attention to religious proclivities of Nigerians in selecting their candidates. We must not allow the political ambition of a politician to throw the nation into war.
Metro
