By Dr. Sunny Oby Maduka (DSM)
July 16, 2022
Independent Newspaper.
If BAT could be sincere to all Nigerians, he would have known that he wasn’t made the Vice President in 2014/15 because he was a Muslim and hence a Pastor was hurriedly nominated. It wasn’t because he was a Southern Muslim but for justice to be served equitably amongst the two dominant religions in Nigeria.
There was nothing as authentic to presume that Yoruba Muslims are not fully recognised by their Northern counterparts. A Muslim is a Muslim just as a Christian is a Christian.
Yes, we may have different sects amongst the two dominant religions, but how come that our political leaders are always playing on our intelligence by always inventing dichotomy that favours their sinister motive just to win elections.
Religion is a very serious issue in Nigeria. Let’s not trivialise religion in Nigeria because it is the Opium of life to many Nigerians. It can’t be whisk away especially with the religious war that is facing us right now.
The truth is that PMB from his CPC presidential pursuits since 1999 has always picked up a Christian as his running mate. PMB is aware of our diversity and the need to give the two dominant religions a place in leadership. The constitution is clear that no religion or tribe should have a dominant role in Nigeria, and by BAT deliberately picking up a Muslim as his running mate, it shows how desperation could blur someone’s political insight and foresight even from a historical perspective.
At this time of our pathetic national existence, one would have expected a true democrat to demonstrate the unique quality of building a nation that must gravitate towards unity, peace, justice and fairness for all Nigerians in choosing his running mate.
My question is, is leadership all about winning elections that must tilt towards an individual’s interest devoid of rational thinking and national interest? Is a personal ambition much more important to national ideology cohesion?
I may be wrong, but must we forget an alleged insinuation of a grand patron of BOKOHARAMISTS that wants to pass the baton of leadership to another grand patron of AGBEROS. The only difference is that one group is waging war against Nigeria while the other is all about lawlessness against Lagosians.
Think deeper and decode the above….
Nigeria is at war right now, and it’s not just about pretence anymore. The main cause of this war is the supremacists’ ideology that Nigeria must be Islamised. LET’S BE BOLD ENOUGH TO STATE THIS FACT, and you can deny it or pretend about it, RUGA and WATERWAYS shrewd laws were the foundations that we are still battling to shred.
When has private business becomes a government wahala? Why shouldn’t herdsmen go to a state and buy lands as done by other citizens in other states? Why must they be given lands free of charge, and by enforcing people’s ancestral lands to assume a status of SETTLEMENTS? The true meaning of RUGA in Fulfude is MY LAND. It then means that wherever RUGA is enforced, that lands become automatically, FULANIS LAND.
Even an insane person will not sleep under a blanket in a room infested with poisonous snakes. Every Nigerian has the right to live in any part of the country, but such a person must rent his or her apartment, buy a land and build, live within the laws of the place and of course pay taxes and levies to the community, state and FGN. No Nigerian is permitted to live in the forest not approved by government as a residential area. FGN has no morality rights to forcefully take people’s ancestral lands and dash to another tribe in whatsoever disguise. Orji Uzor Kalu’s benevolence of ceding Lokpanta to the Fulani herdsmen has become a nightmare to the people of SE, as that place has become the dungeon of Fulanis atrocities in terms of killings, kidnapping, bandits and outright terrorism.
Before I digress, ISWAP has only one agenda to Islamise the entire West Africa. It’s very open and no longer a rumour, but the reality that is facing Nigeria squarely is the soul of Nigeria to be extinguished for a carbalised religious enthronement.
Let’s equally ask of why BOKOHARAMISTS are agitating for in Nigeria. The answer is very much in the public. They don’t want any western educational system in Nigeria. Islamic educational system must be entrenched in Nigeria and with an enforced Arabic studies and language inclusion in our Constitution. (Of course, today, Arabic studies has been entrenched into our schools curriculum garnished with HIJAB enforcement. Gradually, Arabic language will soon be made compulsory in our schools because the test on HIJAB controversy has been quelled.)
These terrorist groups have created lots of hardships that include slaughtering permutations under Islamic recitals, displacing people from their ancestral lands and hoisting their flags, imposing taxes and levies on farmers in certain parts of the North, destroying and maiming Christians and Muslims who are impeding the actualisation of their objectives, kidnapping, raping and forcefully taking over people’s wives and redistributing them amongst themselves. They have engaged their atrocious stewardships against our security agencies and innocent Nigerians with heavy violence and casualties. They have the audacity to attack our military formations, including NDA, sacked Shiroro indigenes and break into our correctional facilities severally to free their jailed members.
Who are ISWAP and BOKOHARAMISTS?
These two sects have one common identity, they’re MUSLIM ISLAMIC EXTREMISTS.
If they’re Muslim Islamic Extremists, why are we pretending that Nigeria won’t be Islamised if we hoist a core Muslims’ presidency?
The heart of a man is different from his actions, and it’s becoming very important to assume that APC’s quest for Muslims presidency is never borne out of national interests. If after all the heinous crimes that Nigerians are facing right now due to Islamic extremists insurgents, and BAT doesn’t make any serious analysis of our plights, what rights are you going to have when the entire country is promulgated as a Muslim country?
If BAT could be forced into taking a decision that he’s fully aware of the consequences on none Muslim believers, what assurance can you adduce that in years to come, he won’t be forced to sign off Nigeria to these Muslims extremists that had forced him to choose a Muslim candidate as his Vice President?
If as at today, we have a pastor as our Vice President, and we can experience the kind of prosecutions in our churches, our clergymen are being attacked, kidnapped and killed in predominantly Christian communities of Southern States and Northern States on daily basis, what evidences are we looking for in this foliage situation?.
If our pastor Vice President has remained like an enslaved tiger that cannot utter a word, can you imagine what will now become the lots of none Muslims when we have Muslim-Muslim President and Vice?
The true personality of Alhaji Shettima is evolving and the social media is agog with the hatred outburst of this man against the Igbos. His alleged telephone conversation with Governor Amosun has been trending where he condemned GEJ but never for once, criticised PMB on the insurgents atrocities in Nigeria.
Can we in all honesty believe that APC’s agenda has nothing to do with Islamisation of Nigeria? The conspiracy theory has been on the line since thirty years ago as stated openly by Governor Ortom, and it’s not new anymore, especially with the way the insecurity situation is being handled, and the allegation of a compromised security architecture.
It has been predicted years ago by one Pastor Bosun Emmanuel in 2014. He predicted that APC is a Muslim party and that they have the agenda to Islamize Nigeria but many Nigerians did not believe him.
It goes to buttress the fears of none Muslims that a Muslim – Muslim Ticket is a glaring testimony of what to further expect from APC in 2023. A party that won’t consider Nigerians diverse identities will promote an ideology of ISLAM FIRST.
In one of my kindred’s parlance, it’s said that, ‘a wonderful day in the market starts from an early morning clement weather.’
BAT is desperate to be the president of Nigeria because it’s his turn, and not because he has any idea of what Nigerians are passing through in this regime that he hoisted on Nigeria.
“A desperate man doesn’t think rationally, and he has the tendency of using anything to actualize his desperation, and which includes, selling off his birthright, and even killing others. His vision in life is the picture of his desperate destination, and how he gets there is always a disaster at the end”.- DSM.
When people talk about 1993, when MKO and Kingibe were overwhelmingly voted as a Muslim-Muslim SDP presidential ticket, there are seven basic issues that we have failed to address.
- The time of the election. You can’t compare the attributes of Nigerians then and now, because religion and tribe were not so much engrossed in our subconscious beliefs. We live as NIGERIANS FIRST, but not anymore. Our political elites have destroyed our harmonious coexistence, and unfortunately, when they’re sharing our collective wealth, they don’t think about religion or tribe. But during elections period, it’s activated. What makes this scenario very unfortunate this time around is because of the governance policies of this regime. Appointments and other policy objectives have been compromised by the incursions of tribal and religious nepotistic enforcements. The way this government treats religious insurgents is becoming increasingly disruptive to the minds of Nigerians. As at today, nobody can vouch for the innocence of the government in Nigeria’s insecurity situation.
There are lots of suspicions amongst all nationalities in Nigeria, and today, Nigerians are no longer at ease because the centre cannot hold us together hence things have fallen apart.
- Islamophobia and religious enthusiasts’ terrorists were never heard of in Nigeria. This problem started gradually from 2010, and imagine the difference between 1993 and when insurgents surfaced in Nigeria.
- The present pathetic situation in Nigeria demands that every diverse boundaries must be considered in all appointments. This regime is the worst nepotistic government and nobody can trust a Muslim- Muslim leadership in Nigeria for the meantime. A situation where in a national policy formulation, interpretation and execution, no other religion will have any privy to the intents of such policies, or privileged opportunity to discuss such national policies directions will be disastrous and suicidal.
- The Constitution of 1993 and 1999 were not the same. The 1999 constitution was an imposition of the military juntas and with false applause of being enacted by the people. The 1999 constitution was lopsided and it favours the North more than the South.
- Equally of note, Sharia laws were never practiced in any part of the country in 1993, and never in the history of Nigeria did we have a Sharia Judge being appointed as the CJN.
- In many parts of the North, Islamic laws have become a symbol of religious beliefs. There is absolutely restrictive ideology in terms of what women should wear, how they should be treated, what anyone can drink, and indeed, most lifestyles have been restricted to religious beliefs.
- There was nothing called blasphemous lynchings in 1993, because religion was not part of the constitutional jurisdiction. Today, there are many Islamic provisions or clauses in the 1999 constitution, thereby, making Nigeria more or less, a religion state. We may deny it or pretend about it, Nigeria has been tilted towards Islamic religious country instead of the secular society we have in 1993.
It is becoming clearer that if APC has adopted Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket without a feeling that certain written and implied provisions that prohibit the dominance of one religion, tribe or personal interest in the supposedly Nigeria Constitution, it then means that we have a serious underlying agenda by those who Imposed the constitution on Nigerians.
Critical Considerations:
Equity, Justice and Fairness must be considered as a national policy enforcement.
We must be bold enough to discard the Decree 24 of 1999, purported to be our constitution.
All nationalities should come together to brainstorm for a new broad-based constitution.
Fourthly, the issues of State of Origin and Religious Inclusion should be abolished and replaced with State of Residence and National identity.
What I can’t understand about Nigerian leaders is that they don’t care about any new trends in governance policies. If Tunisia that has predominant Muslims could passed a referendum on 25.06.2022 to abolish Islam as a state religion, why are we so engrossed in religious propagations in Nigeria?
Sudan has done the same. Many Middle East countries are seriously considering banning Islam as their state religion with what’s happening in Afghanistan presently. Are we under a certain spell of religiosities?
Supporting Muslim – Muslim ticket at a time like this is not only wicked but insensitive to none Muslims. I am not speaking out against this arrangement because I am a Christian, but for equity and justice. I will not spare a Christian-Christian ticket if the reverse is the case. We must think about Nigeria first before our religious and tribal sentiments.
This is beyond politics, and according to my dear brother, Dickson Ihe Anyi, “I have no power or right to condemn any body’s actions and inactions, even if such power or right is within my control, I choose not to do so.”
Anyone who knows how to do good and is doing it, his actions and inactions will remember him; and at the same time, anyone who knows what is good and refuses to do good, the evils that he prefers will judge and condemn him one day.
Our choices in 2015 are why Nigeria are suffering now?
2023 is around the corner, and in good or bad conscience, we will go and vote, but the consequences of our votes will not be segregated amongst tribal or religious borderlines.
People are free to promote whosoever they want to promote, but we must be willing to take responsibility for the consequences of our actions and efforts without shifting blames, whether it is good or bad.
Nigeria is a blessing to both Nigerians and other citizens of the world, and hence we must take back Nigeria from the old crooks that have improvised and oppressed us since independence. We must bequeath our children and generations, a new country that they will be proud of….
We must destroy the impositions of religious and tribal propagations that have not benefited majority of Nigerians but few vampires in power.
Don’t forget that I come in peace…
Dr. Sunny Oby Maduka (DSM).
