Introduction
The Saturday Guardian,
August 20, 2016, had the front page captioned “Nobody Can Islamize Nigeria,
says Sultan”. The main story on page two of the paper with another caption,
“Nobody Can Turn Nigeria to Islamic State” reads: “The Sultan of Sokoto
has told Nigerians to forget the fears or suspicion of a grand plan to turn
Nigeria into an Islamic State.” Abubakar pointed out yesterday, that it is
impossible for a multi-religious country like Nigeria to be converted into a
monolithic religious state.” He continued, “It is not possible to Islamize
Nigeria. If God had wanted, he would have created all Christians or all
Muslims. We are not secular but a multi-religious state because the people are
so religious. We must respect one another and understand the tenets of the two
religions.”
Meaning of Secular
NCEF begs to disagree
with his Eminence that Nigeria is a multi-religious state, based on the fact
that the Constitution which forms the basis, upon which our founding fathers
agreed to live together as a country, provides under Section 10 that “the
Government of the Federation or of a State shall not adopt any religion as
State Religion”.
The Oxford Advanced
Learners dictionary defines: secular
1.
as “not connected with spiritual or religious matters”.
2.
“Of priests living among ordinary people rather than in a religious community”.
Nigeria has
multi-cultural and multi-religious communities, tribes, ethnic nationalities
but one nation. It is correctly assumed that in the interest of peace and
justice, the Constitution in Section 10 PROHIBITS the State
from Religious participation by way of recognizing one and two religions.
Multi-religious country does not fit the interpretation of Section 10 rather it
is its opposite. The Sultan’s interpretation, we submit, is intended to
justify Islam and Christianity as State religions until Islam dominates to
become de facto and de jure religion of Nigeria.
Apart from Professor Ben
Nwabueze, most lawyers, Christian and Muslim, shy away from the proper meaning
of Section 10 of our Constitution. It is our hope that this issue of whether
Nigeria is a Secular or multi-religious state will be subjected to proper
conversation in the future. However, in the interpretation of English words
(not Arabic), Nigeria constitutionally, is a secular State. We
respectfully disagree with the Sultan “that it is not possible to Islamize
Nigeria” as she has already been Islamized.
Organization of Islamic
Congress (OIC)
By taking Nigeria into
the OIC in 1986, Military Dictator, Ibrahim Babangida officially turned Nigeria
into an Islamic State. The Charter of OIC concerning membership stipulates that
a country should, first and foremost, be persuaded that it is an Islamic nation
before it can apply for membership. Simply by the act of the application for
OIC membership, Babangida tampered with the secularity of the Nigerian State.
That unilateral decision should be reviewed because it violates Section 10 of
the Constitution.
Hassan al-Banna, the
founder of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 1928, wrote in 1934, “it is a duty
incumbent on every Muslim to struggle towards the aim of making every people
Muslim and the whole world Islamic, so that the banner of Islam can flutter
over the earth and the call of the Muezzin can resound in all the corners of
the world. God is greatest. (Allahu akbar).” Al-Banna further instructed
his followers: “Islam is faith and worship, a country and a citizenship, a
religion and a state. It is spirituality and hard work. It is a Quran and a
sword.” (Muslim American Society www.maschicago.org) We
know that Muslim members of the Nigerian Armed Forces, (and the Sultan was a
General in the Army), have soft spot for the Egyptian Armed forces until it
became estranged with the Brotherhood. Some of us, Christians, are unable
to accept as a result of lack of evidence that the Islamists doctrine of Jihad
(Boko Haram and Fulani Herdsmen) is not acceptable to Nigerian Muslims. We say
so because the conduct of government officials suggests intolerance, and preparation
for Jihad.
Intolerance
It will be recalled that
in 2007, a British Elementary School teacher in Sudan, an Islamic State with
Christians, Gillian Gibbons, was convicted for “insulting religion” and
threatened with death for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Mohammed.
Sudanese President, Omar al Bashir pardoned Gibbons after an international
outcry. It would appear that insulting religion has been extended to
insulting the President in Nigeria. In the SaturdayVanguard August
20, 2016 (Front page), is the report of a “Man who named his dog Buhari
re-arrested and to appear in Court.” The report at page 5 states, “The Ogun
State Police Command yesterday said it had re-arrested Mr. Joe Chinakwe who
named his pet dog Buhari noting that the suspect would be arraigned in court on
Monday. It also stated that Chinakwe who was earlier released a few days ago,
was picked up again based on Police belief that the suspect’s action was
capable of provoking an ethno-religious crisis.”
The report continued,
“Police said the arrest was made to save the suspect’s life because the
complainant and his group have threatened to kill him if he comes back and this
may happen.”
If Nigeria is being run
as a secular State, the Constitution in Sections 10, 37, and 38 guarantees
right of private and family life, Right to freedom of Thought, Conscience and
Religion that should protect Joe Chinakwe and the Complainant would have been
arrested but because Nigeria is an Islamic State, Joe Chinakwe has to face
trial in the process promoting "the most effective way to get rid of
critics” is to instill fear in ordinary Nigerians. One wonders if the dog
had been named Gowon or Jonathan would there have been any furor about the
matter.
Stealth and Civilized
Jihad
NCEF states that it is
not an expert on Muslim doctrine but only relies on reading materials provided
by Muslims including the Muslims Brotherhood. In these documents
Jihadists are advised that “They must understand that their core task –
eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within, is not
negotiable as it is part of the basic duty of every Muslim … it is a Muslim’s
destiny to perform Jihad and work wherever he is and wherever, until the final
hours come.” It is as a result of the understanding (or lack of it) of
Civilized Jihad that we are apprehensive of those in the “Security and
Intelligence Committee” of the Federal Government by some unexplained reasons
are mainly Muslims. President Buhari, (Muslim), Chief of Defense (Christian),
Chief of Army Staff, Chief of air Staff, Minister of Defense, Minister of
Internal Affairs, Inspector General of Police, National Security Adviser,
Director General of DSS are all Muslims from the North. We are not too sure
whether the Vice President is a member of this Committee following information
that he was once excluded from the meeting the President called. When the
Vice President summoned the same meeting in the absence of President Buhari who
was away in the UK, there was resistance and the meeting had to end abruptly.
Military might Against
Whom?
Military might consists
of Army, Navy, Air Force, Police, Intelligence Service, Civil Defense, Road
Safety, Vigilante, Sharia Police in addition to Boko Haram that was reported in
the Sunday Vanguard to have killed "No fewer than
23, 000 Nigerians since the outbreak of the Boko Haram insurgency in the
North/Eastern part of Nigeria. Within the same period, a total of 2.15 million
persons have been displaced from their homes and communities as a result of the
conflagration. A group, Network of Civil Society Organization, NECSO,
gave the figure at the Northeast Humanitarian Summit held on Saturday, August
20, 2016, as part of the activities designed by the United Nations
General Assembly, to honour those brutally murdered by
terrorists in Baghdad, Iraq, including a UN envoy, Segio Vieira De
Mello" (Vanguard page 4). The atrocities committed by Fulani
Herdsmen such as number of persons killed, farmland and buildings destroyed
with other properties during the same period were not included. The conclusion
which we, Christians draw is that Jihad is being committed against our country
Nigeria especially when the cohesive instrument of state is in the hands of
three ethnic nationalities and one religion. This enlists fear in the
minds of the populace especially Christians.
Education
Perhaps the most glaring
mis-step taken by the Buhari administration is in the Ministry of Education. It
is important to some of us Christians that “stealth or Civilized Jihad” should
not be introduced in our schools for fear that our children will be presented
with a view of Islam that white washes its violent history and intolerant
religious imperatives based on our experience with Boko Haram and Fulani
herdsmen. This explains why some of us Christians, are uncomfortable that the
Heads of National Universities Commission (NUC), Polytechnics, Colleges of
Education, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Joint Admission and
Matriculation Board (JAMB), Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC),
National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB), and National
Teachers Institute (NTI) are all Muslims and one or two of them Islamist
Jihadists.
Stealth Jihad
It would appear to the
NCEF that since 1975, Stealth Jihad has been exhibited by the Jihadists in
Nigeria. The Jihadists believe that Sharia law is the perfect system for human
society. They worked (and are working by all means) to impose Islamic Law
on Christians and those Muslims - the Ahmadiyya who support Western pluralistic
governments and seek to live with non-Muslims as equals under secular rule. The
Islamists have introduced, bit by bit, Sharia Law into the Nigeria society by
demanding that Nigeria become an Islamic State while shouting down all those
who dare to challenge their machination. They are well funded, organized and
persistent. They will not be pacified by negotiation or compromises, and cannot
be bought off. Stealth jihadists work energetically to wear away the very
fabric of the Judeo/Christian culture which Nigerians acquired through Western
Education. They do not tolerate co-existence and must subjugate
others.
Taqiyya
Permissible lying in
Islamic law is not only permissible but obligatory for Muslims in some
situation. Sharia law has two standards of truth and falsehood. In general, the
Quran disapproves of Muslims deceiving other Muslims, but approves lying for
the promotion of Islam. Taqiyya is a concept in Islamic law that translates as
“deceit or dissimulation” particularly towards infidels. We have to re-examine
the roles of some State Governors who say that they are converts from Islam to
Christianity but merely hiding their true identities for the promotion of
Islamism in Nigeria or members of the intelligence agencies who have penetrated
the “Christian camp” and hold high appointments in the Church, yet, remain Muslims
after all. These are suspects who weaken Christians understanding of Jihad and
sabotage Christian organizations, such as CAN and various Christian
societies. The Church had one of such false converts pretending in the
Church for six years, and when he eventually genuinely converted to true
Christianity, Islamic fundamentalists attacked his home and one of his sons was
killed. In the above situation, how do Christians accept what some Muslim
leaders say without hesitation? His Eminence will appreciate why we, Christians
are suspicious of some of his pronouncements especially when we can read
Taqiyya in the story concerning our Chibok girls.
Oil Revenue
In the Sunday Vanguard,
August 21, 2016, the following was reported: N96 trillion was realized from Oil
Revenue between 1958 – June 2016: How Nigeria short-changed oil producing areas
and deprived them of N36 trillion derivation, since they got only N12.3
trillion; 2500 killed in 25 years; Why Niger Delta region, others want
restructuring, resource control.
The publication showed
that of the N96.212 trillion crude oil earnings only N12.3 trillion was paid to
the oil producing areas as derivation. Had 50% derivation as obtained
before 1966 applied, the Niger Delta would have earned N48.106 trillion.
The fears of “Christian” Niger Delta is that the Region may be abandoned to its
fate by an Islamist Federal Government, after all, all “land in Nigeria has
been bequeathed to the Islamists by Allah” and therefore “reserves” the right
to abandon same as the British colonialists did in Jos after mining for tin
ore. Niger Delta will then be saddled with unproductive land due to oil
pollution and the rivers and streams polluted by crude oil will be devoid of
fish and other marine resource. They will then be told that it is the
wish of Allah.
It will be safe to
suggest that the Islamists have succeeded in weakening all opposition and are
now prepared to launch the final jihad that will re-introduce the Sokoto Empire
of the 21st Century. To achieve this, Nigeria’s
386 other Ethnic Nationalities must be impoverished and weakened to the extent
that they will see Islam as the only way out of poverty, insecurity and heaven
on earth and beyond. In other words, the Buhari Government is on a
proselytizing mission. We are of the view that his quest for emergency
powers to aid tackling economy, will aid proselytizing.
It is also very clear in
the said publication that oil revenue financed Nigeria since 1958 and it will
be inhuman in the 21st Century for those who have benefited
mostly from oil revenue to turn round and enslave by conquest, their
benefactors. We are sure that such conduct does not accord with mainstream
Islamic teaching. For us Christians, our attitude must remain “Think
Christian, Act Christian” in the face of Islamist Jihadist ideologues
that see themselves as the New Colonialists.
Conclusion
There is need to allay
the fears of the generality of Nigerians especially Christians based on the
facts above because prominent Christian elites and leaders, for reasons best
known to them, have refused or are unable to speak up. Since Christians are not
in control of any political party that would protect their interests as the
Muslims, all Christians can do is plead with the Sultan to respect the
Constitution and must not regard it as inferior to the Quran. There is a Bill
now pending before the National Assembly, titled “NGO Regulatory Bill”
intended to silence NGO’s including the Christian Association of Nigeria
(CAN). It is not in dispute that Nigeria is an Islamic State contrary to
Section 10 of the Constitution. What is in dispute is whether Nigeria is
ruled by mainstream Muslims or by Islamist Jihadists. We plead with
the Sultan to appreciate that Nigeria is safer and more peaceful when the
Government of the Federation or of a State does not adopt any religion as State
Religion.
God bless.
*Courtesy: Solomon Asemota, SAN, Chairman, National Christian
Elders Forum (NCEF)
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