By Abdulbaqi Jari Katsina
The emergency of Gen. Muhammad Buhari on 11 of this month as the APC Presidential candidate brought back the much heated campaign and effort by the various parties to paint the APC as a Muslim party in order to deter Christian voters from voting for the party in 2015. That is what is known as ” religious politics”. For a very long time, different sets of evil people have labelled the Gen. Buhari as a religious bigot who is in no way tolerant of differences in religion and ideological background. They are doing that not because it is true, but because they find no any other way to say something bad about the Gen. Buhari despite himself been a one time Head of State. Buhari still have personal and intimate friends that are Pagans, Christians, etc, and he is still going well with them. Then how on earth can you call him a bigot?
There is no doubt that religion is a very important factor that determines the socio-political arrangement of nations, and communities. Religion is suppose to be use for good, not other wise. There is no any problem for anybody to belong to, to associate with any religion in the world. The freedom of religion is enshrined in Nigeria’s constitution. The right to freedom of association is another right to belong to set of people you wish to and religion if you wish to.
From around the world, there are countries with different state religions; the Vatican City is Christian country, Israel is Jewish nation, Saudi, Iran, & Pakistan are Islamic countries, Tibet, UK, etc have different religions and are still developing. Despite having state religions, That is not stopping them from developing. In fact some are ten to twenty times better than Nigeria, and there are still minorities living freely in those countries.
Likewise in many other countries, there are many faith based political and sectarian parties. In Germany, there are many Christian Parties like the Christian Democratic party, Albania Christian Democratic Movement, Australia Christian party, Croatia Christian democrats, Columbia Christian National party, Cuba Christian Liberation Movement, Denmark Christian Democrats, France Christian Democratic party, etc. In fact, even in Muslims majority states, there are Christian parties. Even in the worlds largest Muslims country, Indonesia, there is a Christian party named The Christian democratic party of Indonesia. Likewise In the so called developed countries, despite there. So called campaigns for rights, tolerance, they still have faith based parties like; in France, Italy, UK, Germany etc. Then why not a Muslim party in other countries and Nigeria since it is a Muslim Majority?
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In Nigeria every simple and important issue is a matter of religious view and inclination. Even the national security is not left out. Even when Nigerians are suffering from mis rule, corruption and looting of public funds, instead of Nigerians to unite against their common problem, they still choose to remain divided.
For whoever is leading, funding and aiding the campaign against Muslims or any party they think is Islamic in Nigeria, let Nigerians know they are destroying Nigeria and Christians and other religions should not support them. This is because, that will undermine the good effort of the government and the good people of Nigeria to live a better life and help one another.
Politics is a game of number, not opinion. If the Northwest, Northeast, North central, and Southwest will unite under a single party, then so be it. What opposition and opponents should be doing is, they should try to come up with better manifesto and agenda for Nigerians, in that way, they will win the positions of government and the people of Nigeria.
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Nigerians – especially religious and political leaders should fear God Almighty, they should continue to do what is right and refrain from evil. Nigeria is for all Nigerians and united we stand, divided we fall.
#OneLove #UnitedNigeria
Katsina is the chairman, Katsina State Muslim Right Concern (MURIC),
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Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of TheCable.
2 comments
General Buhari has every right to be a devout Muslim and to seek to Islamize Nigeria, if it is indeed true that such claims represent his views, just as others have the right to be devout Christians and seek to evangelize the country. It’s all well and good as long as nobody’s life is put at risk, nobody is stoned, nobody is shot at or killed. My Islamic theology course in college taught me about there being no compulsion in Religion. But history is written in the blood of innocents under both Christian and Islamic autocracies. Both the Church and the Mosque have the blood of millions on their hands. To pretend otherwise or seek to whitewash these historical certitudes is to be willfully ignorant or engage in the kind of cognitive dissonance that makes men pervert and deceive their souls that it is alright to massacre ‘the other’ or the ‘infidel’ in the name of a compassionate and merciful God.
Nigerians, Muslims and Christians, were people of worth before both Islam and Christianity came to these shores. These days, you wouldn’t know that. Nigeria is not Saudi Arabia, nor is it Germany or the Vatican. Nigerians have their own unique history and do not have to be any other than Nigerians. It is because of the witnesses of a long world history of religious dictatorships and Nigeria’s multiplicity of ethnicities and identities that it opted to be a secular state in the first instance. That is what it MUST remain if it is not to reap a harvest of wrath and destruction. Tafawa Balewa was almost a saint. And, I don’t think that anyone, irrespective of political and religious persuasion think that people like Shetima Ali Mungunu or indeed His Excellency Usman Shehu Shagari are anything but humble, devout Muslims. What has changed, objectively, that people can no longer serve God under a secular dispensation anymore? Does anyone honestly think that non-Muslim Nigerians now find Islam very attractive and cannot wait to commit themselves to Islam after the so-called ‘Boko Haram’ bloodletting, whatever the real truths are?
This is not the time to pontificate on Christian or Islamic parties in Nigeria. That is now purely academic. To not even be aware of its resonance is to give the detractors of Islam one more reason to hate its influence. Nigeria, for now and for a long time to come, must remain a modern nation state: secular, liberal, protective of everyone’s rights – including the right to serve God or not to, and valuing everyone’s life equally in the sight of the Creator, worthy of protection, dignity and sustenance. I don’t see any evidence that any ‘Christian’ or ‘Islamic’ state is better in any way or fashion than the secular liberal ones. Can anyone cite one example except to state that they are not Christian or Islamic enough? Have things changed for the better, in the way expected, since Sharia was introduced on a political level in the northern parts? I must confess a certain attractiveness that a devout life has for me: relevance, fellowship, mercy, modesty in dressing, morality, submission to the will of God. All things considered, let the living and the preaching of that life be attractive enough to win others to a better way, not the imposition by manipulation, coercion, ban, the gun and such things.
Mallam Katsina will agree with me that picking a christian/christian ticket by any party in Nigeria will seem offensive to a lot of people esp our moslem brothers, and any party that attempts that is opening its flank to avoidable criticism and rejection.
Politicians use religion to divide the people to their advantage scorning issue-based discourse and manipulating the minds of people. But this time the electorate are wiser and not ready to be dragged to mundane and irrelevant things. The real issues of good governsnce-education, security,infrastructure etc are on the front burner. No escaping it.
Thank God APC escaped the bobby trap. Christians , Moslems all feel the misgovernance of a clueless, corrupt and spineless administration of this present govt. Change is inevitable !