Pouring Trouble On Oily Waters (2)
Nigeria is a secular state and should be so treated, writes Michael West
The reinforcement of Islamic financial operations in Nigeria is becoming serious constitutional and sectarian trepidations. Typical of our former military and present political leaders who are Muslims, they don’t care a hoot about the constitutional violation and protestation by the Christian community over this issue. Despite the vocal and intellectual fireworks deployed by the immediate past President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, against the integration of Islamic banking into our financial system, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) formally enlisted Jaiz Bank as a regional interest-free bank in northern Nigeria in January 2012. Today, the bank has 21 branches across Nigeria (no longer regional) and it was even one of the 11 banks approved for the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) for pin vending. I think this is why Christian leaders were wary of Sukuk Bond arrangement.
There have been accusations against President Muhammadu Buhari that he was much committed to the full implementation of Sharia Islamic Law throughout the country before he ascended the seat of power as president in May 2015. He was quoted to have said at a public forum in Kaduna in August 2001: “I will continue to show openly and inside me the total commitment to the Sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria. God willing, we will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of the Sharia in the country.” If you ask me, I don’t see anything wrong if Buhari is committed to the growth of Islam as a religion in Nigeria, just like Christians would evangelise the nation for Christ; but implementation of Sharia is an affront to our constitution, thereby giving Nigeria dual identities both as an Islamic state as well as a secular nation simultaneously.
Recent developments in public institutions leave no one in doubt about the dogged drive towards perceived Islamic expansionist tendencies. From the hindsight of history, we knew Sokoto (the seat of Caliphate hegemony) and Ilorin, Kwara State capital, fell to Fulani Islamists on the strength of being accommodated by the land owners and indigenes. This is possibly one of the reasons History as a subject is being phased out in our secondary school curriculum in order to nip in the bud the gradual agitations by angry indigenes who are beginning to ask questions about their lands of origin. So, when the issue of grazing reserves across the nation was mooted at the National Assembly, it was vehemently opposed!
Prof. Ben Nwabueze, who ruminated over the systematic implementation of Islamisation agenda, despite wide denunciation of the move to turn Nigeria into a mono-religious state, tearfully told journalists at the venue of Igbo Leaders of Thoughts (ILT) meeting in Enugu, “This is a very crucial meeting for us because, if you look at our agenda, we have critical issues for discussion; issues like Islamisation agenda and its impact on the unity of the country. Islamisation agenda is real, it’s not something that somebody has just conjured up, it’s there. And it’s being implemented gradually. Look at the security agencies; in every aspect of security, Islamists are in control in its entirety. They are methodical in the way they are going about its implementation. Look at Fulani herdsmen menace, it is part of it.”
Abu Qaqa and Kabiru Sokoto, two kingpins of the Boko Haram terror group had confessed during interrogation after the Madala bombing that, “We had a grand plan to Islamise Nigeria rightly starting with the North. We felt that a lot of Muslims were not practising the religion faithfully as they should. The plans to attack churches and schools were not a reaction to any provocation. The plans had been there. You know why the churches had to go. Those schools for instance were not teaching the children according to ways of our faith. These were part of our initial plans of allowing only Islamic schools and wiping away the so-called secular schools.”
When President Buhari sacked the heads of educational bodies such as JAMB, NUC, NECO and 14 others in August 2016, out of the 17 affected offices, nine Christians were replaced with Muslims while four (on-the-job Muslims) were allowed to continue in office. In all, 13 of the 17 are Muslims. Ordinarily, we don’t need to view every issue from religious perspective but the brazen imbalance and nepotistic biases of the current administration makes one suspects and weighs every action on both ethnic and religious scales. One of the beneficiaries of this lopsided appointments and immediate past Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who incidentally was spitting fire and brimstone over an Ecclesiastical Court proposal, is very much comfortable with Sharia sweeping across the entire country regardless of the interest and feelings of other religions.
Meanwhile, dominating the leadership of our security agencies by Muslims was identified as a grand plot to further entrench Islamisation agenda regardless of our constitutional provisions which stipulates federal character for equity, fairness and regional balancing. This reality was justified by the conscription of the Civilian JTF in the North-east into the Nigerian Army without considering the geographical imbalance and protocol for recruitment. I do hope this administration won’t be blinded by its passion for Islamist territorial conquest drive to breed Christian militia both in defence of their valued lives and Christian faith in Nigeria. Sudan and Central African Republic should be a lesson for us to learn from.
If the situation is allowed to degenerate to a level where Christians, especially the youth, are forced to carry arms in ‘selfhelp,’ I doubt if we can survive it as a nation. What baffles me in the whole game is that those involved in this Islamic grand plot are not thinking of the unforeseen at all. I think they have so much confidence in their game-plan because they have their ‘boys’ manning strategic posts in the armed forces. My point here is that sometimes, human power does fail! They should pulse for a while and do a serious rethink about the possibility of breakup or a breakout of serious ethno-religious war that could last for years and which might even consume them.
Until there was so much outcry and widespread condemnation, the Christian Religious Studies (CRS) had been merged or subsumed into some other subjects while those designing the curriculum made Islamic Religious Studies (IRS) compulsory. What an affront! Similarly, I learnt they also proposed to make Arabic language a must in our tertiary institutions. I keep wondering if there are no Christians at the level where these lopsided academic decisions are made.
In Kaduna, the state government asked religious preachers to get permit to preach while preachers should also submit their proposed sermons for screening. All these shenanigans were targeted at the church. It’s all in the ploy to shut down the voice of the gospel which apparently is sheer impossibility. The Head of the Church Himself had decreed that “the gate of hell shall not prevail against His Church” not only in Nigeria but the world over.
In conclusion, I think President Buhari, a supposed panNigerian leader, would prefer to work towards ingraining his name in gold in the history of Nigeria as a great leader who did his best to promote and unite the country and not the other way round. He is the President of both the North and the South; Muslims and Christians; as well as the elected leader of everything Nigeria stands for. Failure to acknowledge this truth and act accordingly will do us no good, especially if he chooses to continue on this parochial, skewed and highly nepotistic style of administration. It is a certified and shorter route to anarchy.
Those who are hell-bent on Islamising Nigeria and favouring their own with juicy, strategic and sensitive appointments should, in the interest of this country and her good people, stop this suicide mission and learn from the history of nations where such misadventure had back-fired.
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