That one of the major problems assailing Nigeria as a corporate
entity is situated within the religious and pseudo-religious elite is a
fact that does not require any shred of evidence to the discerning. Nothing illustrates the foregoing submission more than the usual hoopla
from the stable of a supposed Christian cleric and public intellectual,
Matthew Hassan Kukah, who has a penchant for heating the polity with
his bigoted premises and warped conclusions. The context of his latest
misguided vituperations was the book launch organised by Premium Times
Books last Wednesday in Abuja, as reported by the online newspaper in
the story, “Christians not allowed places of worship in some northern
tertiary institutions” on August 16, 2018.
According to Premium
Times, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto characteristically
berated Muslims generally and Northern Muslims in particular that they
orientate their children to be violent. He falsely claimed that
Christians are not allowed places of worship in northern higher
institutions and he invoked the same mantra of marginalisation that has
been used, abused and overused by dissident groups and political
desperadoes.
One strategy of Bishop Kukah’s is to play the
underdog in highlighting their pathological hatred and undisguised
intolerance for Muslims in this country. Though objectivity is a core
requirement of scholarship, Bishop Kukah is passionately opposed to it.
He recently ventilated such noxious thoughts of his at an international
forum where the Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for
Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) stood to educate him that the issue is neither
one-sided nor as simple as portrayed. But he has chosen another platform
to play voodoo on the minds of the unwary and the undiscerning.
Without any fear of contradiction whatsoever, the irrefragable truth is
that no religious group faces the persecution that Muslims face in
Nigeria. From the usual hijab saga to religious witch-hunting in private
and public establishments, Muslims have always been subjected to the
same treatment the colonial masters made them suffer. But rather than
consider it what it is in the hands of the Christian neo-colonialists,
the patriotic zeal to keep Nigeria together has often made Muslims elect
to see the injustice against them as an aberration.
In
addition, we do not know why the respected Bishop has developed a
proclivity for negativity and falsehood, instead of the things that
unite us. For example, the Catholic Secretariat is only a-three-minute
drive from the sultan’s palace in Sokoto. Also, when the said Cathedral
was being opened, the state Governor – a Muslim, was present at the
event. The Sultan who was out of town at the time sent a powerful
delegation to represent him.
These and many more are glorious
examples of the peaceful and tolerant disposition of Muslims toward
their Christian neighbours in the heart of Muslims’ lands.
Conversely, Bishop Kukah uses every opportunity to throw tantrums at
Muslims and talk of marginalisation in the North, where he superintends
over several churches worth billions of Naira, he conveniently ignores
the emasculation of Muslims in the South to the extent that they don’t
even have a voice as Christian Governors and leaders ride roughshod on
their rights. Islam is reduced to the status of an unwanted visitor as
successive Governors in cahoots with the intolerant religious leadership
there ensure that no breathing space is allowed Muslims. CAN leaders in
the South openly sign statements in support of one candidate or the
other whereas if a Muslim does in the North, heaven will be made to
fall. The Governors in the South East and South-South can conveniently
spend millions of Naira on covering live church activities on
television from public funds without a whimper from the rabble-rousers
but if a Muslim Governor elsewhere sponsors a pilgrim with a fraction,
they are quick to mount the rooftops and shout of Nigeria's secularity.
In other words, in the whole South East and South South Geo-political
zones, including some parts of the South West, Muslims are treated like
lepers. They are denied and their ramshackle places of worship are
routinely destroyed. Yet, Muslims have not been using every available
podium to castigate and demonise their Christian tormentors even when
they are aware that Kano alone has thousands of churches operating
without let or hindrance, just like many other places in the North.
One or two cases will aptly demonstrate Kukah’s hypocrisy and
insincerity as he is in a position to be aware of the scenario. Rivers
State University of Science and Technology is a Nigerian public
university, yet the institution illustrates and symbolises the
intolerance, bellicosity and colonial mentality of the Christian
establishment in the Southern part of Nigeria.
While the
authorities of the university granted more than six different places of
worship to six Christian sects or denominations on campus, they
blatantly refused to grant one to Muslim students. The makeshift mosque
the students erected to worship God was demolished and its materials
have been confiscated by the university since January 25, 2012.
Rather than take the laws into their own hands as many students are wont
to do when confronted with such provocation, the Muslim students
approached the courts after exhausting all diplomatic channels to make
the university authorities see reason. The case, with SUIT No.
FCH/PH/CS/150/2012 was brought before the Federal High Court in
Port-Harcourt and the students were granted the reliefs sought by the
court on February 19, 2013.
The authorities of the universities
did not toe the line of reason but rather chose to appeal the judgement
in order to prolong the persecution of Muslim students. The Appellate
Court in SUIT No. CA/PH/614/2013 nullified the appeal on March 31, 2017,
and upheld the right of the Muslims to be allocated a plot for worship
on the Campus. Yet, rather than put a stop to its illegality, the
university authorities still approached the Supreme Court where the case
is pending hearing. The tactic is to postpone doing the right and
constitutional imperative to punish the peace-loving Muslim students and
deny them their constitutionally-guaranteed rights as Nigerians.
The stark reality of Nigeria is that some Christians, goaded on by
their overfed leaders like Kukah do not want Muslims to exist. When they
shout that Christianity is under threat, it is a manner of expressing
their Islamophobic tirades as just done again by Kukah.
It took
the intervention of the Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN) to
point out the composition of the so-called Afenifere that parades itself
as the council of elders in Yorubaland. In the entire body, no single
Muslim is found old enough to be a member. A region boasting of
nationally and internationally acknowledged icons like Prince Bola
Ajibola, Hon. Justice Bola Babalakin (rtd.), Alhaji S.O. Babalola, Prof.
Daud Noibi, Prof. T. G. O. Gbadamosi and a host of other accomplished
and elderly Muslims does not have a single Muslim in its socio-cultural
group because it must be an all-Christian affair.
It is
convenient for Kukah to pontificate as if he was in Mars when the late
Bola Ige was terrorizing Muslim students in Oyo State just because of
the clamour to enjoy a semblance of religious rights granted Christians
in public schools. It is easy to forget the various infractions wrought
upon Muslim students in particular and Muslims in general in many parts
of North Central Nigeria.
The fact that no sponsored Islamic
programme is tolerated on Channels Television despite a request from
even Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, is no issue to Kukah,
but Late M.K.O Abiola’s policy of not allowing advertisement of alcohol
in his then Concord Newspapers was considered fanatical.
Denying people places of worship in the North and the South is an
aberration. Those who see it otherwise or rather play ethnoreligious
cards in a mischievous manner are the true enemies of Nigeria. Nigerians
should not fall for their gimmicks as their stock-in-trade is a
distortion of facts, religious intolerance and intentional amnesia as
demonstrated for the umpteenth time by Bishop Kukah at the event cited
in the report under consideration.
ASELEMI IBRAHIM
is the Public Relation Officer
of the Nigerian Supreme Council For Islamic Affairs (NSCIA)
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