Buhari: Building religious harmony

it is a campaign for the soul of the nation and most importantly, a campaign for change on which lies the future of the nation and its diverse people. Before the political campaigns began, it was clear to many what the campaign issues are and should be since the more than five years of the […]

it is a campaign for the soul of the nation and most importantly, a campaign for change on which lies the future of the nation and its diverse people. Before the political campaigns began, it was clear to many what the campaign issues are and should be since the more than five years of the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan. The issues of the 2015 election campaign are easy to identify and most Nigerians including the uneducated know it. They are insecurity, poor economy and growing poverty, widespread corruption, poor infrastructure and socio- economic amenities like power and collapsed education. It should be noted that under the Jonathan government, Nigeria has fared poorly in the listed critical areas despite huge budgetary allocation made to improve these sectors.
Therefore looking at the above, the problem that Nigerians have to deal with in the 2015 presidential election, is choosing between non-performance and inefficiency that has brought the nation to the present sorry state, and efficiency, competence and positive leadership that will create the condition for development and progress. For many Nigerians, General Mohammadu Buhari represents the latter tendency giving his track record of discipline and incorruptibility and the surprising manner he emerged as the candidate of the opposition in a keenly contested primary election where few gave him a chance.
Perhaps, based on other calculations, the Jonathan camp did not reckon with the fact that they were to confront a Buhari in the 2015 polls. When they realized the strength and appeal of their opponent and the fact that their achievements in office would pale into insignificance when juxtaposed tofailures in security, economy, corruption and power, they abandoned the issues. Rather, as social media enthusiasts would say, they went viral with attacks on the person and private life of Buhari, working very hard to put on him a false toga to create a wedge between him and the Nigerian people who see him as approximating the Change they yearn for.
One area of the life of General Buhari on which most lies have been told to tarnish his image and standing, is religion. Not having the liver to confront Buhari on the burning security, economic and leadership issues of the day, the campaigners for Jonathan have spent much time and effort trying to portray the General as a religious bigot who is intolerant of Christians and people of other religions. They have also worked hard to portray him as a Muslim fundamentalist who if he ascends to power would Islamize the country and introduce Sharia law to replace our present legal system!  
Fortunately, all the efforts to demonize General Buhari has failed to yield desired result as Nigerians in unison continue to chorus, ‘’enough of 16 years of PDP misrule’’. In fairness to President Jonathan and in sympathy with him, the issue in the election, is not him as Jonathan, but the PDP as a party that has trifled and made nonsense of the mandate of Nigerians in the last 16 years. This means that even if Jonathan was not at the helm of affairs and Nigerians find their country in the hopeless and pitiable state it is today, the PDP would still be thrashed by the Nigerian people at the March 28th, 2015 polls.
General Buhari, to counter the label of Islamic fundamentalist maliciously put on him by his political opponents, recently met with a number of clerics of the Christian faith. The first meeting of the popular General was with the representatives of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, CBCN in Abuja. Those who witnessed the interaction said it was one friendly and intellectually stimulating encounter never seen before. General Buhari was in his element. In a speech titled ‘One Nation Bound in Freedom, Peace and Unity’, the Presidential candidate stated that those who deliberately disseminate divisive information and attempt to stoke primordial sentiments using religion or ethnicity, and create fear in the minds of our people, fail the standard of patriotism this nation demands from them. He accused the ruling party and the government of descending to the level of spreading falsehood as a strategy to prevent the inevitable change that our country and people desire and require.
General Buhari later declared to the Catholic Bishops led by the Most Reverend Ignatius Kaigama, Archbishop of Jos, and indirectly to the Christians of all denominations in Nigeria that in spite of what detractors say, he is not a religious fanatic of any sort and has never been. He then proceeded to recount pleasant memories he had in the Nigerian Army, the institution that moulded his character and in which he served the nation for a greater part of his life and in which there is no discrimination on religious grounds. He remembered with nostalgia the happy moments and life of discipline and service under fellow Nigerians who were Christians and his superior officers and those who were under his command and mentorship who were not Muslims. It is clear that a man like Buhari who had such exposure for the greater part of his life is not and cannot be labelled a religious fanatic. When General Buhari met with the Association of Pastors of Northern Nigeria and got their endorsement for the 2015 polls, as well as a copy of the Holy Bible, it then dawned on many Nigerians that this man, Muhammadu Buhari, is one person in whom religious harmony, peace and unity of Nigeria is assured.
Okoroma is based in Abuja.