"When I saw the screaming
headline claiming that General Buhari had called on Muslims to vote only
for fellow Muslims in the next elections, I could almost tell what the
national reaction would be. My brethren within Christianity would react
like wounded lions. There would be name calling, bashing, brick bat
throwing, Sabre rattling and so on. The nature of the accusations would
be predictable. I also knew that politicians from both sides, anxious
for capital and advantage, would throw in their lot in any direction
that favours them. My suspicion was that General Buhari would not
respond. He will remain his typical Self, taciturn and philosophical. He
would be hurting and wondering when it would all end. Interestingly, I
was not disappointed, as the reactions in the last two weeks have shown.
The General has been called all kinds of names. Christian leaders have
threatened to call out their followers to vote only Christians, some
have given the
General a date line for retraction, while others are calling for his
removal from the Council of State and seem to regret over having the man
as a Head of State. Just like all debates about such sore points in our
polity as ethnicity, we have ended up generating so much heat and have
absolutely no light to show for it. Typical Nigerians love talking more
than thinking. My purpose in this article is two fold. First of all, to
clarify if possible, what exactly General Buhari said and secondly, to
use the debate as an opportunity to look more closely at the finer
points of the role of religion in politics. We must move from talking to
thinking in this country.
In dealing with the first
point, I have shied away from commenting on the allegation despite
prodding from the media because I have learnt that there are always two
sides to every story and unless the evidence of both sides are in, all
attempts at judgment are not only dangerous, they will always naturally
be based on prejudice and bias. They can either only exacerbate the
problem, deepen agony, reinforce prejudice and increase tension and
misunderstanding. Since the story broke, I have tried to reach the
General without success. Now that I have managed to speak with him
(Saturday 23rd June), I feel morally in a position to make judgment on
the issues base on my nearly twenty Minutes chat with the retired
General. This does not in any way mean that all I say will be correct
nor do I attempt any iota of self-righteousness. I believe that whatever
the world says, every individual is not only entitled to an opinion, he
or she is entitled to be heard.
We can register our disagreement based on knowledge of the facts. Facts
may be sacred as they say, but facts are not truths.
When I finally called the
General's Kaduna home, he sounded like he was in a very good mood. After
dispensing with pleasantries, I informed him that I had tried to reach
him but had not been successful. He apologized to me saying: Well,
whenever it rains, my phone normally has to recover from the effect of
the rain. It was a good note on which to start our conversation. So Your
Excellency, I asked, what exactly did you say? I have read the
reactions to the statement credited to you and wanted to find out what
exactly it was you said. He seemed and sounded pleased that he had a
chance to state his case. He also did sound anxious to explain himself
as I listened. He proceeded to speak on about ten minutes and I listened
and made some notes. This is his side of the story as he told me. I can
only attempt to paraphrase him: Sheikh Sidi Attahiru Ibrahim is a
Nigerian Islamic Scholar and he had been in Saudi Arabia for 13 years.
He traveled to see me in
Daura and informed me that he had written a book, which Dan Fodio
University had published, and he now wanted to launch it, would I kindly
oblige him by accepting to chair the event? Considering his age and the
fact that he traveled all the way to Daura to see me, I obliged.
Although a book reviewer had been invited, I had been asked to make my
comments, as the chairman of the event, I spoke without a prepared text
and in the course of my comments, I drew attention to the fact that the
introduction of Sharia had become one of the main issues in this new
dispensation. I explained that Sharia, however, has been with us well
before the British colonized Nigeria. Now, Sharia has been introduced in
many Northern states and Sokoto is one of the states that has already
adopted Sharia. It must be pointed out however that Sharia is applicable
only to Muslims. Those elements that have taken the law into their
hands and use the opportunity to molest other
non-Muslims are not helping the cause. What is more, they are like bad
policemen or judges who are making the enforcement of justice so
difficult in Nigeria. Their shortcoming does not do the police force or
the judiciary any good, but these acts do not detract from the
imperative of both institutions. Midway through our democracy, we have
time now to assess the situation on ground in terms of making our choice
in the next elections. Vote for good men whether they are in Borno,
Katsina, Sokoto or wherever. Vote for those who will protect your
interest. This, Rev. Father, is the summary of every thing I said and
the tapes are there.
I did not record our interview
because I did not have the General's permission and in any case, it
would have been wrong for me to do so. I have only tried to paraphrase
what the General said to me base on quick notes I made and I hope I got
him right on the essential thrust of what it was that he said. May be I
have made my own mistakes in reading him. However, he was categorical
that he did not say that Muslims should vote for only Muslims. After
all, as he said again, even during the time of the Holy Prophet, there
were non-Muslims just as there were unbelievers even in the time of
Jesus Christ. He referred me to an Arewa House Lecture delivered by
Alhaji Liman Ciroma, which raise the point that justice is more
acceptable than a Muslim who governs unjustly! On the whole, it would
seem that the General felt hurt by the comments and reactions to what he
considered to be an innocent comment. But that is the way the cookie
crumbles.
I believe that I can make what I
consider to be my own honest comments now that I have spoken to the
General and heard his own story. The important thing to my mind is not
so much a question of whether the General was telling me the truth or if
with hindsight, he was presenting a revised version of his comments in
the light predicament. I personally have no reason to believe that the
General was reacting like a man trapped and therefore seeking
discussions, but the tape recording of what I said is all there for
anyone who wishes to watch it. I also imagine that anyone remotely
familiar with the General would make two concessions. One that he would
not doctor a comment base on what the public might think so as to
receive acceptance. Secondly that General Buhari would consider it
beneath him to come our defending himself. Anyone remotely familiar with
the mind of a Northern Muslim would concede that the General would
remain calm and philosophical,
believing in the judgment of his conscience on the one had and that of
Allah on the other. It might help to pose the question: did the General
warrant the attack that was heaped on him by very senior statesmen and
women? Why did our tribe of elder statesmen from whichever calling not
find it fit to consult with one of their own before going to town? The
inability of his critics to seek his own side of the story would seem to
have bothered the General, as I understood him. What this issue raises
for me is the way Nigerians generally react in the face of the public
discourse on very sore but deeply important issues, especially religion.
We all retreat into our cocoons of prejudice and from that comfort, we
continue to throw stones at the centre, defending our own but also
raising the tensions. The result is that we fail to realize the extent
of the damage done to our institutions, causes and integrity. I know
that many readers who have rather made up
their minds and would rather remain in their laagers will accuse me of
blindly supporting the General, pandering to the North, or even
trivializing what they consider to be a serious issue. It might also be
said that the General may have settled me, as is common with us whenever
anyone dares to beat a track away from the popular and wide road tarred
with prejudice. They will wonder why I have broken ranks with my own
tribe when all good Christians ought to have stood on one side. Well,
those who may be familiar with me would already know my antecedes,
namely, I love a good fight and do not bow to blackmail or intimidation.
I bow to truth as I see it until someone, no matter how small, shows me
that there is a superior viewpoint. Indeed, as far I am concerned,
Buhari issue could offer us another chance to contest and iron out some
more serious national issues.
I am familiar with the wider implication of religion and politics
in other lands and this has been my area of research and discourse in
the last few years. We are not the first to experience these tensions
regarding the implications of religion in political choice. What makes
these choices turn into weapons of destruction is the hostile
environment with its attendant characteristics: poverty, squalor,
illiteracy, hunger and want.
A nation with these characteristics sees its population weakened
and reduced to servitude and indignity. The citizens gradually fall back
on patrons who then use the condition of their so-called constituency
to engineer discontentment by raising the volume of the people's
condition. The Patron (he is usually male, a chief, a fake appellation
of Dr and a fake Sir, all titles he garners to compensate for his semi
literate and modest credentials) is not so much concerned about the
welfare of his people, for he requires that existing condition as a
grazing field to satisfy his personal ambition and hold on to power. He
uses this condition to negotiate with the state, which being largely
uncaring about the general condition co-opts this patrons as one of its
fellow negotiators (s party member, an office-holder in the dispensation
or of a member of the ruling council as the case may be). The patron
then invents an identity for his people and builds a
brick wall to stop them from both realizing their conditions and
negotiating with others in the larger society who may share their
depressing conditions. The people are told that they are Hausas,
Northerners, Muslims, Yorubas, Igbos, Urhobos or whatever. Their
imagined ancestry, with no historical or anthropological basis, becomes
the fig leaf for covering the nakedness of the patron's greed. When the
people begin to experience the pain and it seems that they are likely to
listen to the voice of reason (based on the sermon of those who have
seen through this deceit), the people are told by their patron that they
cannot contaminate the purity of their linage. We, the descendants of
so and so must remain united and stand together. If this identity has
been hammered on the anvil of religion, the people are told that the new
elite challenging the status quo is betraying the cause. The patron
charges anyone exposing this hypocrisy with unbelief or at best
those who have abandoned the true religion as ordained by God. This has
been the philosophy driving the idea of we, the Northerners, we the
descendants of Oduduwa, we the Ndigbo and so on. Although these
exclusivist identities make national integration impossible, these
characters continue to make noise about the need for patriotism,
national unity and peace. But they are a danger to both peace and
justice. Unknown to those they claim to represent, they only have the
interests of both themselves and their children in mind. The people fail
to see that they have time now because all their children have been
ferried to the best schools. You can see it when a chance presents
itself at the center: it is their children that they put forward when
these men of little honour sit down to gamble away our commonwealth. Yet
there is the tendency of setting one group against the other when the
conditions of poverty are explained away on the claims that our
conditions
are miserable because the North/Muslims have cornered power, the
Yorubas have cornered the economy or the Ndigbo have cornered the
bureaucracy. The minorities of course are holding the can marked for the
militias because there, life is nasty, it is also brutish and short.
They constitute the fighting force and they are doing enough of that as
we can see from the internal destructions within both the Northern and
Southern minorities. The best of them in the militia tribe, sensing the
threat of all this to national survival, have tended to take up arms.
Historically, these coups, unless they install one who will sustain the
tiny interests of the ruling classes across the board, do not succeed.
When the coups threaten to take power from the ruling classes in order
to address the issues of equity and create a home for all citizens, they
are called failed coups and a chance is provided to eliminate the best
from the tribe of the militia minorities. Then, the
circle returns as the nation is call upon to spit on the grave of the
unpatriotic lot. This has been the history of this nation. Even without
arms, when the minorities have tired to raise public awareness to
injustice, they have been found to be trying to sing outside the choir
and their voices have been shut. The Ogonis are classic representation
of this cause. The ferment in the Niger Delta is the best expression of
these contradictions…
The reaction to the Buhari saga
shows in many respects the fact that we are still not out of the woods.
Indeed, those who have argued with no supporting evidence that June
12th showed that we have overcome the politics of ethnic differences and
regionalism have overstated their case. We still have a long way to go.
For those who have resorted to Sharia to buy time and legitimacy, it is
not clear yet whether the worst is still to come. But I have it on good
authority from at least two highly placed Muslims from Katsina and
Funtua that since the introduction of Sharia, the cost of alcohol has
gone up by over two hundred per cent, in some places, much higher. I
also hear that the price of kettles has gone up because the elite need
at least two, one for real ablution and the other for storing alcohol.
At the beginning of the 21st century, at a time when there is no nation
in the world that is practicing Sharia at the level we crave for, the
ruling elite
in Northern Nigeria seemed determined to take a road that will lead to a
cul-de-sac. This is not a judgment on the application of Sharia per se.
I know that any and every honest Muslim knows that the Laws of God are
written in our hearts. We do not need promulgations, proclamations or
declarations to implement he love of God. The Iranians tried this road
under ayatollah Khomeini. Today, many of the solders of the revolution
have changed track and are in a quest for modernization. President
Khatami is leading Iranians on the road of modernization. It is nonsense
to argue that modernization undermines faith. It is the inability of
the elite to respond to the challenges of modernization that create the
problems. Modernization is not responsible for the greed and selfishness
that face us. It is not responsible for the dubious claims that we make
to religion while leaving a lie in realizing the ideals of religion,
the liberation of the human person as God's
creature…"
CONCLUSION, BMM
In the Holy Bible, it is
written that "Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall save thee."
Having presented the truth on General Buhari's position on religion and
votes, it is hoped that the readers of this pamphlet will help to pass
it on.
Finally, I will quote from Proverbs in the Holy Book.
15.1. "A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grevious words stir anger…"
15.4. "A wholesome tongue is a tree of life; but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit…"
15.6. "In the house of the righteous is much treasure; but in the revenue of the wicked is trouble…"
15.33. "The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility."
Amen.
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