Politics, religion and money
Right from my childhood and my early days in the quest for knowledge first in Islamiyya school, then in primary, secondary and high schools (the last three all owned by the Roman Catholic Church), I was taught a fundamental fact about religion and politics. I was made to understand that the former was to take care of business in the hereafter while the latter was about here and now.
I was also taught that the two did not mix well so attempts at fusion should be avoided. Recent events in our country have however threatened to demolish all the core assumptions I have been carrying along with me about the role of the two in one’s life and their non-convergence. The events are INEC’s commencement of the distribution of the permanent voter’s cards (PVC); the reaction of clerics to it and the emergence of the presidential candidates of the two major political parties - the APC and the PDP.
Let us talk about the voter’s card - a purely political instrument conferring on its owner the power to decide who gets elected to what office. This therefore makes it politically significant. My training says it does not carry that much weight religiously. Or does it? I will attempt to answer this question by examining how our clerics perceive the ownership of this rectangular and laminated piece of paper. A video that recently went viral depicted some Christian clerics stressing to their congregation the importance of the PVC and the fact that without it, the gates and doors to the sanctuary of churches will be shut.
Suddenly, the PVC; a political instrument, has metamorphosed into a religious instrument guaranteeing access to churches, services and possibly a gateway to heaven and eternal bliss. Got it? Let me break it down... to get to heaven, one needs to worship; to worship, one generally needs to be in a church. Now, to get into a church one seems to need a PVC complete with proof of ownership, QED. The PVC, originally a political instrument has now become a religious instrument aimed at ensuring maximum Christian suffrage participation. The order has made the sanctuary of the church, hitherto the exclusive preserve of the righteous, now also a haven for the politically correct.
To ensure that the No-PVCNo-Worship order was not shortcircuited, the video showed some bouncer-clerics, some collared and some in cassocks, standing right at the entrance to ensure compliance. The message is clear...the church is still interested in sending people to heaven but only those with the right combination of righteousness and ownership of PVCs.
In the midst of all this, it is pertinent to ask what is the reaction of the Muslim clerics? Was the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs speaking for all of them when, in a recent statement, he declared in no uncertain terms that the Council had never and would never have interest in political matters? While that may be the official position of the Council, it is at odds with the utterances and stances of many Islamic clerics.
Having had their reverie broken by the political proactiveness of their Christian counterparts, they hopped onto the PVC wagon with political admonitions targeted at their followers. To be fair to them, not a single one of them by their ideas, speeches and admonitions has pledged the authority of the Supreme Council. As late comers, they are yet to make access to mosques and other places of worship a function of PVC ownership. They are thus yet to turn themselves into Babban Riga wearing and turbaned bouncers standing menacingly as barricades in front of mosques. They have however, time and time again in their sermons, emphasised the importance of accessing the PVC and voting only for Muslim candidates.
Closely related to these two instances of what I choose to call the religionisation of politics is a video I saw of one Sarah (prophetess?) who almost tearfully described as disrespectful to Christianity and Christians, the emergence of Atiku and Tinubu as presidential candidates of the
PDP and the APC respectively. I am sure she does not have all the facts so I advise her to take a more searching look at the events leading to the two outcomes. In the case of the PDP, she should listen to what Sam Ohuabunwa, a defeated aspirant, said in an interview after the primary election. Explaining why Atiku (Fulani and Muslim) emerged as candidate, Ohuabunwa said, “As I told someone earlier, religion and tribe did not count. Only money did”. He also said “when dollar speaks, people forget their surnames”. It is therefore very clear that in the case of the PDP, Sarah’s disrespect claim cannot be supported by any nuanced or religious point.
One other controversial narrative bordering on religion and politics that caught my attention in the social media relates to the number of Christian voters in Nigeria; their potential influence and power. The author of the narrative put the number at 95 million which according to him is more than any Muslim presidential candidate can muster. He therefore wanted the Christian Association