Is the North a lip? [III]

From the combative years of His Eminence Francis Cardinal Okogie to these unpredictable times of Pastor Oritsejafor, either because of opposition for opposition’s sake, or because of ‘genuine’ fears, Christian leaders have often fiercely opposed any Muslim project even if it held no prospects of adverse effect on Christians or their interests. Perhaps the most […]

From the combative years of His Eminence Francis Cardinal Okogie to these unpredictable times of Pastor Oritsejafor, either because of opposition for opposition’s sake, or because of ‘genuine’ fears, Christian leaders have often fiercely opposed any Muslim project even if it held no prospects of adverse effect on Christians or their interests. Perhaps the most celebrated case was Nigeria’s entry into the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, OIC, that saw the entire country at daggers drawn with religious leaders on both sides dancing their various ways onto the gallery. The fact that Nigeria’s entry into that organisation would draw this type of Christian opposition was indicative of a level of Christian intolerance that had not abated to this day, but which could not be excused on the altar of ignorance of the nature and role of the OIC, or the fiction that it was being turned into an Islamic state.
And from thence on, the combative relationship between the two religions became set. It was merely a reflection of that fact that the present government found so convenient. At one of the most difficult junctures and trying moments in the nation’s history, the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, perhaps not without a little help from the presidency, installed on itself a leadership that looked more interested in having its finger in the pie of enclave prebendal politics than in concentrating on ecclesiastical affairs.
Instead of sympathising with Muslims in the North over an existential national tragedy, the leadership of CAN, especially Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, its chairman, appeared more interested in stoking the fires of a totally different conflict of its own making. From its pronouncements, we saw a leadership that had no intention to understand the dangers of the moment, exhibiting little desire to live in peace with its Muslim neighbours. It threatened brimstone on a Muslim population it very well knew was not at war with it, in a conflict that, even according to President Goodluck Jonathan, Muslims suffered more casualties and devastation than the Christians.
And every time a ray of hope appeared on the horizon of interfaith healing, a Northern branch of it would always dutifully come out to dash it, as if interfaith relations in the North must always be a zero-sum game in which Muslim victory equals a Christian defeat; and Christian pleasure is seen only in Muslim discomfiture.
In the process, CAN ended up not as the spiritual wing of the ruling party as alleged by some, but as merely a spiritual arm of a ruling presidency; and, if not for the opposition openly mounted by the leadership of Catholics, Muslims would have been left with no option but to conclude that this tragedy had the blessing of all Christians. This Catholic example is what Muslim leaders should have also learnt to do any time a Muslim preacher or group misrepresented the position of Islam or tried to trade with its name. But, alas, memory and kara always hold the door.
It is this same attitude that informs what is happening on the church prayer front: predawn, street-by-street, itinerant preachers actively seek to disturb everybody’s peace. Even if this is the Christian response to the blare from mosques, it fails in quite a direct way. If it is to disturb the sleep of Muslims, it fails because they are supposed to be awake at that hour, anyway; and if they are asleep, the deafening songs and ear-splitting preaching of the Pentecost only helps them to wake up.
Unfortunately, one wrong and another wrong do not make a right—they only make two wrongs that deal a double blow to interfaith relations; and Jos trebled it. That protracted crisis on the plateau and widely-held belief that the state government, and in particular Governor Jonah Jang, was behind it had for long tested communal and religious relations in the North to almost breaking point.
But with Jang himself now ready to put the past behind him—and saying so publicly—there is hope for the future, but only if done for the right reasons. Or was it because Jang saw and was gratified by the fact of other Northern governors falling over each other to help him validate an election he did not win? Or was it because previous irascibility had now been tempered and mellowed by a slow understanding of the sociology behind the eternity of Fulfulde feuds?
And others still feed fat on the crumbs. There is among Christians in the North today a group that practises what, for want of a better term, may be called minoritarian, as opposed to majoritarian, politics, a brand of politics played not to identify or pursue the interests and rights of the Christian minority, though ostensibly that’s what it pretends to do, but to try and jeopardise and undermine that of the Muslim majority. Cut his nose to spite his face.
It is this attitude that leads some of these Christian politicians, for instance, to believe that deeper relations with Israel must be cultivated, not because it is in the interest of Christians, because it is not and it can easily be demonstrated to them that it is not, but just in order to spite Muslims, which, even by way of payback, is very unfortunate. It is an attitude that at best betrays a profound misunderstanding of the nature and essence of the Zionist state and ignorance of its contemptuous attitude to Christianity and Christians. Nigeria is probably the only country in the world in which regard for and relationship with a foreign nation can lead to quarrel between its citizens.
Where does that all leave us? The cult of Northern elitism must now accept that it has led the Northern laity down the garden path—to an era of progressive ignorance, tumultuous times of crises and violence, and a period of political and economic irrelevance; and isn’t it high time that it began performing the sacred rites required to take back the flock to higher ground?
To do this, Northern religious, traditional and political elite must quickly get their act together, keep sealed lips and listen twice as much as they speak—and come to the rescue. First, to make for more sanity on the religious scene, the true class of Ulama must take full charge of the situation on the Islamic front and rid its class of pseudo-scholars who may deliberately or inadvertently set the country on fire. On the Christian front, perhaps a new leadership for CAN will not be a bad idea; but an even better one is for its Northern branch to realise that Christianity is a great deal more than blind support for a Christian president—who, in addition, is not performing.
Second, the elite of the traditional institution in the Caliphate and the Middle Belt must now attempt to retake the moral high ground of the leadership of the region and begin to strategise on matters of great moment—the issues of security, the crucial matter of communal contact and togetherness, and the variety of threats to the region’s future.
Third, the political elite need to start playing real politics. In the past, this class that has been quite unable to truly connect to its own people now wishes to completely disconnect from the reality facing them. Two years ago, a part of these elite sought a political consensus but, in its uncharacteristic hurry, it went on to act before it could properly forge one. That particular consensus failed for two reasons: one, a part of the elite was unwilling to forsake its political grazing reserve, even as their region was being targeted and destroyed; and, two, the larger umbrella proved unwilling to address and resolve lingering inter-elite rivalries that remain to this day unaddressed and therefore unresolved.
In trying to create the future of the new North, elders in the region must be guided only by the most altruistic of considerations and by communal goodness, and be able to resist the temptation to succumb to petty jealousies to determine what is for the good of the North within the Nigerian set-up. Now, another part of it, the very group that in 1998 gave the country to General Olusegun Obasanjo as a fitting penance and atonement for its own excesses, has embarked on another futile exercise that will fail for a different reason—and, if care is not taken, they may again end up handing the presidency to President Jonathan on a platter of diamond.
And while the North may not really be a lip, in the end, it is what people in the region do with their lips that will determine which way and how high the region leaps—forward, backwards or directly into perdition; and it is for us all to determine whether, by our silence, we will allow a minority to drag the whole lot of us into an unnecessary and unwinnable conflict.
To avoid that, the new North must take a stand and demonstrate that it is for the truth on whichever side truth happens to be, and no matter whom it supports or who is condemned by it; and that the new North is for justice whoever it is for or against. Otherwise, we can forget about the North, its future or planning for it.