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Speakership Crisis: Dangers of Religious Politics in Nigeria By Muhammad Ajah
Nigeria, no doubt, is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-religious and also multi-political nation inhabited by wise and enduring human beings. Three things that have stood undefeatable in Nigeria are tribalism, religion and to an extent class. But an eagle-eye survey of events in the country since its creation can authenticate the claim that religion is a pivotal factor in Nigerian politics, nay say in the world.
A conscious mind can recall that even in first world nation like the United States of America, religion plays significant role in their politics. Remember that the incumbent President Barak Obama was hunted by his opponents during their electioneering campaigns on his presumed religious background. He was seen by his main rival as a Muslim, tracing his parental backgrounds in Kenya. Otherwise, how many Americans would have voted Obama if he was a Muslim despite found completely qualified for the position he contested? So, whether it is accepted or not, religious politics however dangerous is live and kicking in our society.
But in Nigeria, people play religious politics with cruelty and even villainy. Some indulge in such either out of sheer ignorance of its implications on the gullible plebiscites or because they have discovered the vitality they gain in creating confusion amongst humanity. Nigerians often say they are tired of these sentiments but what can they do when their destiny is hung far away from their hands?
General Muhammadu Buhari has not been favoured in the nation’s democratic set-up. Since he joined politics and contested the presidential polls in 2003, 2007 and in April 2011, the nation’s political elite has never associated with him. What is his singular crime that scares the big men away from him – religion, political will and courage!? Some ascribe the deadliest sin in politics – being too religious – to him. They are afraid that as a staunch Muslim, he will apply the hard policy of equity, fairness and justice in his governance. These abstractions are preached by followers of divine religions, though some do not even wish to implement them in their lives. So the Nigerian politicians fully comprehend the implications of such hard policy.
Since the return of Nigeria to democratic governance in 1999, there has been latent war of supremacy between the political blocs of the north and the southern part of the country. The north has been looked at as a domineering component of the notion in the political scene. It’s not contestable because going by the number of past presidents of Nigeria, the north has the largest. The region also records the longest duration in the nation’s leadership, with the late Murtala Ramat Muhammad having served the shortest period.
But many people of the southern Nigeria do not look at this fact from a common man sight. They believe that northern Muslims dominated the nation’s leadership. They do seem to forget that the longest serving Military Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon is a staunch Christian. Or they claim that his names are Hausa or Islamically inclined.
A group called Igbo Ekulie, claiming to be made up of intellectuals and technocrats in both the formal and informal sectors of the economy cannot authenticate its claim of defending the Igbo interests by merely making careless statements in the newspapers. In its press statement titled “Speakership Crisis: Danger Alert to an Invidious Plot against Ndigbo”, endorsed by its president and secretary, Prince Emma Amaefule and Okechukwu Okeke respectively, the group lost grip of its intended pursuit and went verbose.
I could not have made reference to this publication if not to correct some misgivings by the group. Yes, Ndigbo have been marginalized just as every other segment of the nation would claim or have claimed from time to time. Since the end of the Nigerian civil war, Ndigbo have been relegated to second class citizens. This group can better understand my stand on this burning issue of Igbo marginalization in my previous articles: Presidency: A Haram for Igbo race?; Declaration and understanding the modern Nigeria; An open letter to Southeast Governors; Dangers of north/south dichotomy, amongst others which appeared in several national dailies. The crux of the matter is that the Igbo must work hard to attract relevance and they should never depend on mere promises of power shift or to put it in a Nigerian terminology, north/south political dichotomy. They should watch and see what Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) is capable of doing in future. They cannot continue in this stereotyped political movement. The Igbo must diversify their political tentacles.
I have often warned the Igbo not to be allowed to be used to play the political games for others. They have often spearheaded the victory for past democratic presidents since 1999 and got very little for their efforts. How to correct this abnormality against Ndigbo should have been the focus of the Igbo Ekulie. Instead, they engaged imagination on facts and figures. Let me quote part of the statement that portrayed the group as either myopic in its understanding of the Nigerian society or mischievously aggressive in frustrating the political existence of the minority Igbo Muslims in their native homes.
Under their observations in the Daily Sun of May 12, 2011, they claimed thus, “…This further points to a devious plot by some powerful forces within the presidency and ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to scheme the zone out of the party’s presidential ticket in 2015. In the unlikely event than an Igbo does not emerge in 2015 and a Christian Northerner emerges as the flag bearer of the PDP, the issue of nominating a Muslim Vice Presidential running mate will arise on the basis of religious balancing.
Continuing “And like the present situation where PDP power brokers are looking towards the South West to fill the Speakership slot, the PDP hierarchy may also be compelled by exigencies to look beyond the South East for a Muslim running mate. Under the scenario of a Christian Northerner clinching the presidential ticket of the PDP in 2015, NO SOUTH EASTERNER MAY BE CONSIDERED AS VICE PRESIDENTIAL RUNNING MATE UNLESS SUCH AN IGBO PERSON HAS TO CONVERT TO ISLAM. (emphasis mine).
This, to lend some words from the group, is a gratuitous insult on the sensibilities and interests of the Igbo Muslims for intentionally denying their existence in the first place and for undermining their potentialities to man any national responsibilities as well. Good that the group recognizes that there are capable Christian minorities of the northern extraction who have the qualifications to be President of Nigeria. So if that be a glaring fact, why on earth should a group claiming to be a full body of intellectuals and technocrats deny the glaring fact that there are capable Muslim minorities of Igbo extraction who have all it demands to be President, Vice President, Minister or whatever political position in Nigeria?
Can the group sincerely claim not to know that Igbo Muslims exist? Have they not heard of a presidential candidate of his party, Alhaji Yahaya Ndu who has been in politics for long? What of Chief Haroun Ogbonnia Ajah (Ochi Udo 1of Itim and Nze Nnanyere Ugo 1 of Afikpo) who has not only made tremendous contributions to the development of his immediate community and his state at large, but has contested the position of Federal House of Representatives four times only to be silently edged out each time on religious basis? What of Sheikh Adam Adbullahi Idoko, Alhaji Suleman Ukandu, Major Ali Yusuf, Dr. Abdullahi Hassan, Dr. Yunus Eze, Dr. Yusuf Item, Dr. Iman Item, Barrister Ibrahim Obiahu, Barrister Aminatu Ekemma Ibe, Engr. Muhammad Eze and very many others in different fields of human endeavours.
To put the record straight, each state of the Southeast has hundreds of Igbo Muslims as indigenes, not northern Muslim residents. So it is absurd to start mentioning names of Igbo Muslims and their villages in this write-up. Suffice to assert to all Nigerians and the world that Igbo Muslims are many and that they are surely qualified to man any position of trust in our dear country in particular and in the larger world. They should not be relegated to second class citizens or denied any political offices, both at the state and federal levels, basically because they are minority Muslims in their own birth places in the Southeast.
It is quite true that Igbo Muslims are politically denied. It is hard to find an Igbo Muslim in political position even at councillorship level. It is not because they are not qualified. DEFINITELY, IT IS BECAUSE THEY ARE MUSLIMS. But Christians contest elective positions even in Kano and win. They are accepted and voted for by Muslims. In the just concluded April elections, many Igbo Muslims fought for Jonathan’s victory in their localities. Some claimed that Buhari did not come to the Southeast to campaign while some others outrightly queued behind the power-shift clamour to the South. Who then is more religiously tolerant in Nigeria’s politics?
State governors are mandated to nominate ministers, board members and other political appointees. Who has ever, among the South East Governors nominated a Muslim from their States? But the Muslim Governors of the north have done. Prof. Jerry Gana, Rev. Mathew Kukah, former Finance Minister and now a Senator-Elect, Nenadi Ahmed, to mention but very few are still rife in memory.
Despite the fact that the President has the powers to appoint special advisers, special assistants and even some ministers, never had any President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, including the Muslims among them, appointed any Igbo Muslim in his executive cabinet. Why? Someone should sincerely give an answer to this enigmatic question. But definitely it is never because there are no capable heads from Igbo Muslims. No sane Nigerian can bet that Igbo Muslims cannot produce a qualified President of this country, not to talk of the vice president.
This kind of group should be very careful in ditching out statements that are capable of adding salt to the injurious wounds this nation is toiling to cure. It must be noted that efforts to remain united in diversity has depicted Nigeria as an egg which must be handled with extraordinary care to avoid the condemnable destruction of lives and properties, religious misgivings and misunderstandings as well as political upheavals and civil disturbances.
Muhammad Ajah is a writer, author, advocate of humanity and good governance based in Abuja. E-mail mobahawwah@yahoo.co.uk
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