Why I visited the National Mosque – Archbishop Onaiyekan

You were at the National Mosque last Wednesday. We saw you with the Islamic leaders there in a photograph. What were you there for?   It is interesting that the a newspaper put this big picture there without a story. It’s a typical demonstration of the very well- known saying that pictures can speak volumes. […]

You were at the National Mosque last Wednesday. We saw you with the Islamic leaders there in a photograph. What were you there for?

 

It is interesting that the a newspaper put this big picture there without a story. It’s a typical demonstration of the very well- known saying that pictures can speak volumes. That picture in itself spoke a lot. Maybe there was no need for any story. It made the impact that was to be made – namely that whatever certain people may be saying out there, there are some Nigerians who decide to come up boldly and openly to demonstrate that we still believe in our ability to live together in peace in this country.

I’m very happy the way it has been brought up. Many people phoned me to congratulate me without asking, “what did you talk about there?”

For many years, Sadeeq Abubakar, who is one of the officials of the National Mosque and I often meet on various occasions. Sometimes we meet on television. Whenever we meet and discuss, I find in him a Muslim who is anxious to have a peaceful relationship with fellow Nigerians. I find in him a Muslim who is making efforts to promote the spirit of harmony among his own Muslim constituency. And he has a large constituency because he is a regular contributor in some newspapers and he is regularly on television and radio.

So we have been thinking of how we should have something going in Abuja. Long ago when we had Justice Bashir Sambo who used to be the Grand Qadi of the FCT, we had already started something like that – dialogue group in Abuja – some of us Christians, some of us Muslims. This was long before NIREC [Nigerian Interreligious Council]. However, for whatever reason, we did not set it up as a formal organisation and so the whole idea tapered off.

All along, Sadeeq and I have been saying we should do something. The events of the last month have practically pushed us to say we should stop talking, we should do something. So I invited Sadeeq to come with four of his friends who will be interested in this kind of initiative. And they came to my house – we sat together, we decided that we should start something going in Abuja. Let us set up a forum where anybody in Abuja who wants to be part of such a discussion group will be free to join.

We met here Sunday evening and said on Monday morning, we would fix another meeting which will take place at a venue to be decided by the Muslims. Already by Monday, I got a call asking us to meet on Tuesday. I said that is very soon! I was thinking of another meeting in a week or month, but realised then that our counterparts were very anxious for this thing to take off. So we agreed to meet on Wednesday. This time, not with four/four but with 10/10.

The photographs were taken either at the time we were going in or were coming out. It was covered by the NTA and I heard it aired that night [Wednesday]. Most Nigerians expressed happiness with it.

We did formally inaugurate our forum, which we called Abuja Interfaith Peace Building Forum. And set a small committee to produce a small simple constitution as well as take steps toward registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission. We are doing all this to make sure that this thing doesn’t taper off again. We also decided that by the next meeting, we will do some kind of election to have either one chairman or co-chair as we have in this kind of things and then have regular activities. Already, one activity has been decided upon and we will set up a small committee to work on it. It is namely to organise an international conference in Abuja on Christian/Muslim Peaceful Relations in Nigeria with a general  theme on which various issues can be discussed. We purposely called it international because we didn’t want to restrict it to Nigerians. We will be happy to welcome any of our friends from outside Nigeria who may have something to offer us by way of advice according to their own experiences or those who may be quite interested to hear what we have to say on the matter.

The principle of Abuja Interfaith Peace Building Forum include first, that this is a free organisation. It is open to those people who like to get engaged in interfaith discussions. It is not everybody who is of this kind feeling. There are some people who really don’t have the kind of spiritual aptitude to engage in polite and open minded discussions. There are Christians who simply cannot sit down with Muslims to talk.

Of course, they can patronise a Muslim trader, barber, tailor but to sit on religious basis and probably also can’t understand why anybody else should do so. And as we know, there are Muslims also for whom to even sit down with a Christian is considered almost a haram. We are aware of this.

But what we are also aware of is that the  majority of Nigerians, Muslims and Christians alike sit down very freely with one another knowing that we are of different faiths and not only that we live very much together in peace and harmony.

There are times its not only on the level of friendship or business relationship but even at the level of family—in a couple, one spouse is a Christian, the other a Muslim. We have that and in many cases working and the children decide among themselves what they will be.

So on the basis of this fact majority of Nigerians want to live in harmony. We feel that we are building on a firm foundation when we start interfaith foundation of this kind.

The second principle is we are not there as official representatives of Christians and Muslims. Even though I am a recognised leader of a good chunk of the Christian faith in Abuja, this meeting, I am not entering into it as the Archbishop of Abuja. We have another structure for that kind of official relationship between Christianity and Islam and that is Nigeria Interreligious Council. Which means what we are trying to do in my visit to the mosque is not an alternative to NIREC or a replacement of NIREC.

NIREC has its position and roles but we believe that it is good for as many groups of Christians and Muslims as possible to keep talking to one another, making friends and joining hands in our common battles.

Our hope is that this kind of forum, once started will encourage Christian and Muslim youth groups to come together right up to staging sports activities. We hope that this will promote the already existing efforts between Muslim women and Christian women to talk together. And you can direct it to whatever areas you might want.

The final principle is that when we meet like this, there is no denial of our faith. There is no compromise of faith and the purpose of our meeting is not to try and convince one to join our faith. Indeed, we expect that anybody involved in this kind of forum must be sincerely convinced about their own faith but at the same time, has deep respect for the faith of the other. This is the basis on which we are meeting.

So when you see me hold hands with a Muslim inside the mosque, there is nothing there to indicate that maybe I am trying to become a Muslim. It is impossible! And when they come to visit me here, I don’t intend to preach to them to change their religion and become Christians. That does not stop me from doing my work of propagating the Christian faith which is my primary duty and they know it. And I know it is their primary duty to promote Islamic faith. The land is big enough for both groups to do what they believe God has assigned them to do.

But Abuja doesn’t seem to be under threat of religious disharmony.

But Nigeria is under threat of religious disharmony. In the last three weeks, utterances from both sides give us great cause for concern so much so that people who normally go about their businesses, not wondering or fearing anything suddenly had fears, suspicion, anxiety—rumours and counter rumours. This is happening in our midst.

Abuja is touched because during the time of the rumours, members of my church asked what we were going to do. “Are we going to wait until they slaughter us?” That kind of story. It is dangerous! We don’t have to wait until there is bloodshed and mass destruction of property before we start sitting down to talk. In fact, the best time to organise this kind of thing is when everything is peaceful. When things are peaceful, we can talk peacefully, with rationality.

Only last year you passed the mantle of leadership to a fellow cleric as CAN president. Did you do enough to help Christendom in that position?

Let me be clear on this. It is important that Nigerians and Christians know this. The president is of the association—Christian Association of Nigeria. When you hear that CAN president is the head of all Christians in Nigeria is just a way of speaking. The CAN president does not control all Christians in Nigeria. I still remain archbishop of Abuja. And I am not waiting for instructions from the CAN president to do what I should do.

I have been in CAN for a long time. Major decisions in CAN are supposed to be taken at the level of consensus. We have five groups so if there are any major decisions especially in terms of policy, you bring it for discussion at the executive committee meeting. It may well happen that the CAN president may have an idea which is not shared by other members. Until everybody agrees, it is not a CAN decision.

That does not mean the CAN cannot make statement. Generally, one would expect the CAN president to make statements on the basis of how he feels the mood of the Christian community is. Of course, as CAN president speaking, he has an audience listening and he has to take note of this.

When I was CAN president, I had a particular…I am Onaiyekan and what I am doing now is what I did then and what I had done ever before I became CAN president. I have certain convictions not only as a Christian but as a Christian religious leader.

And as far as this matter of relationship with Islam is concerned, it also happens that my church has a position which I fully endorse and promote. And it is on the basis of that that I did my job as CAN president. I know that even at the meetings, certain positions that I took were not shared by some members of CAN. But some agreed with me. This is why we realised that the question of relationship between Christians and Muslims…there is need for Christians themselves to agree among themselves on what to do if we are to work together.

Mind you, this is not among Christians alone. Even among Muslims, they have the question of differences among themselves. But if you wait until all Christians agree, until all Muslims agree before we move together, I am afraid we will never move.