The Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, while reacting to Christian leaders allegation that there remains a grand plan by Muslims in Nigeria to Islamise the country said amongst other things that, “We (Nigeria) are not secular, but a multi-religious state, because the people are so religious.” I will allow those learned in law to respond to Abubakar’s attempt at rewriting Nigeria’s Constitution.
But, happenings such as the Fulani herdsmen massacre of farmers in the Middle Belt and Southern regions of the country, the killings of Christians by Muslims in the North on allegations of blasphemy, along with the happenings in Southern Kaduna, explains the danger in Nigeria moving away from its secular status as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution and assuming Mr. Abubakar’s multi-religious tag.
In another instance, reacting to one of the ‘Igbo Leaders of Thought’ allegation that the plot to Islamise Nigeria was “real”, “gradual” and “methodical”, Mr. Abubakar asked how it would be possible to Islamise a country like Nigeria “that is probably 80 million Muslims, but we agreed that we are 50-50.” Here, Abubakar exposed his support for a propaganda that has been peddled and vigorously defended by the northern intelligentsia over the years.
Using the census, the northern intelligentsia have always attempted to frame the narrative to read that the north’s population is more than the south’s’ and that Muslims are more in number than Christians. Any contrary argument has been swiftly and stiffly resisted, not by supporting calls for a transparent census but through collective bullying.
To remain politically relevant, the northern intelligentsia knows that it is in their region’s best interest to maintain this propaganda. It is in this last statement by Mr. Abubakar regarding the population of Nigeria, especially as it relates to the division of the country into Christian South and Muslim North, wherein lies the danger of his earlier statement of Nigeria being a “multi-religious state”.
Based on Nigeria’s last census in 2006, the country’s population is pegged at a little above 140 million. When Mr. Abubakar mumbles figures from nowhere and claims that Muslims in Nigeria are 80 million, he is in essence saying that the remaining 60 million of 140 million Nigerians is shared between Christians, Traditional worshippers and Atheists.
Because previous census were allegedly marred in controversy, until Nigeria conducts a credible one wherein religion is factored in in a transparent manner for everyone to see, Mr. Abubakar’s claim of Muslims being more in number than Christians remain in the realm of propaganda.
Now, how does Nigeria’s population figure connect to its secularity or the multi-religious aspiration of Mr. Abubakar? Let me explain. An anonymous writer gave this insightful analogy: “There are five students in a room; two girls and three boys. One of the boys says ‘lets legalize rape’. The other two boys agree. Whatever happens next in that room is democracy in action.”
The above is what happened in Kano state when a businesswoman by name Mrs. Bridget Agbaime, was killed in broad daylight under the guise of blasphemy against Islam, only for her killers to be absolved of wrongdoing. Those whom her husband identified as her killers are Dauda Ahmed, Abdulmumeen Mustafa, Zubairu Abubakar, Abdullahi Abubakar, and Musa Abdullahi.
Those who made it possible for her killers to walk free are the Kano Commissioner of Police, Mr Rabiu Yusuf; the Kano State Attorney General, Mr Aliyu Umar and the Kano Chief Magistrate, Mr Jibrin Mohammed.
While the late Agbaime is a Christian from Southeast Nigeria, both her killers and those in authority who aided and abetted them are all Muslims and Northerners.
The import of this is that, if at any time Nigeria’s population indisputably tilts towards either of the two dominant religion of Christianity or Islam, religious conflicts will likely increase. Killers of many more Mrs. Bridget Agbaime will be acquitted across the country on the basis of their religion, depending on which religion those in authority in each state subscribe to.
Population determines many, if not everything under democracy. It was on the basis of this that Kano, like many other states, was alleged to have manipulated its population figures during the previous census; because a state’s population does not only determine what it receives as allocation from the federal government but also its number of representatives at the federal legislature where laws used to rule the entire country are made.
Again, when at any time Nigeria’s population indisputably tilts towards either of Christianity or Islam and members of either of these two religion can claim majority in the legislature and in population across the country, it won’t be difficult then to amend our constitution in the fashion of Sharia Law for instance.
When you consider Islam’s freedom to its adherents to not only marry at an early age but to marry more than one wife, then the odds will one day favour the Muslims. This is why now, aside calling out Mr. Abubakar on his comment on the secular status of the Nigerian state, it is important to protect freedom, people of other religion or those with no religion at all must insist for structures to be put in place to dissuade adherents of one religion from dominating others, today and in the future.
You can follow him on Twitter @Ojo_Maduekwe
Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of TheCable.
3 comments
We are a SECULAR State.
Ethnic zealotism, just another diatribe. I wonder why our so called elite/acclaimed learned persons like this writer keep hiting on vulnerable faultlines and misinterpreting issues to score cheap political goals… Unfortunate!
Theres nothing secular about a State where sharia law already operates in one third of the entire nation, Where ethno-religious cleansing is being carried out daily by boko haram/ fulani herdsmen, where we identify with the organisation of islamic confrence despite our diversity and where religion can always be used by our leaders to gain political relevance.