“…However, not all men of God disagree totally with Gadaffhi. The immediate past National Secretary of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Bishop Joseph Ojo is one. Ojo, a close associate of the late faith movement icon, Archbishop Benson Idahosa told the Champion newspaper: ‘I agree with him. Nigeria should be split into six different nations. Gadaffhi said the country should be divided into two because of his religious sentiments but the reality is that this nation should split into six different nations...Any church leader who is saying that the country should not split is speaking through his nose; such a person is saying that because of fear of arrest. The Amalgamation has not helped us at all. In fact it has not helped anybody.’”
"Gadfly" Muammar Gadaffhi recently did what he enjoys most - raise some dust by weighing in on international issues in his own peculiar way. The controversial Libyan leader who doesn’t seem in hurry to hand over power to anyone, got on Nigeria’s case at a meeting with African students and, the dust he raised has taking on something of the significance of a weather event.
According to a widely quoted Libyan State News Agency (Jana) report, he recommended the division of Africa’s most populous, oil-rich nation into two countries, a Muslim North and Christian South. The objective: to “stop the bloodshed and burning of places of worship" as a result of recurring incidences of violent conflict between Christians and Muslims.
Rationalising his recommendation, Gadaffhi characterised the incessant violence in Jos, which in recent times has claimed tens of thousands of lives, as a "deep conflict of religious nature." This in his view resulted from the federal structure of the country, "which was made and imposed by the British in spite of the people's resistance to it." He cited the example of India and Pakistan, where according to him, a similar "historic, radical solution" applied, and it saved the lives of "millions of Hindus and Muslims".
Predictably, reactions came fast and furious with Senate President David Mark leading the attack. In a most unstatesman-like manner, he dismissed the Libyan President as a mad man who should not be taken seriously. Reacting to a suggestion from Senator Ayim Ude that the Senate should issue a warning to Gadaffhi for making inflammatory comment about Nigeria said, Senator Mark said “Why do you want to give a mad man that level of publicity. He said the same thing about Switzerland, he said the same thing about England and it did not work. In my own opinion, I do not think he needs that publicity at all."
Many other legislators towed similar lines, all positing that Gadaffhi was “mentally unstable,” “a man…really out of his senses" and “a reckless leader”, whose “madness is incurable” and whose statement was “condemnable”, amounting to “nonsense” and should therefore “be disregarded."
Some prominent men of God also joined the attack. Most Reverend Peter Akinola, then out-going Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) described Ghadaffi’s statement as irrational, arguing, “how can you be calling for the split of Nigeria into separate Christian and Muslims countries when you have Christians who are indigenes of the north and Muslims who are indigenes of the South and vice versa within the country?”
Most Rev. J. O. Akinfenwa, South-West Chairman of the Christian Association Nigeria said we don’t need A Gadaffhi to tell us what to do. His words, according to newspaper reports: “We don’t need anyone from outside to tell us that. We find its utterances unacceptable. Not from somebody like Gadaffhi, who has no good record; who we always known to be an international rogue, a trouble maker and religious fanatics.” He went on to warn that the Libyan leader’s comment should not be taken with “kid-gloves”, noting that “for him to have come out to say that, “maybe there are lot of things on ground which we don’t know. He has been in the vanguard of religious jihad for long, causing religious problems all over the world. Our security agencies should not take it low.”
Another prominent leader, Dr. Sunday Ola Makinde, who presides over Methodist Church Nigeria, issued a statement describing Gadaffhi’s comments as “not only an affront on the people of Nigeria but an insult and a worthless attempt to rubbish the sweat and blood of the founding fathers of this great Nation who did not only envision a one and indivisible nation state but did everything to guarantee the oneness of the entity called Nigeria as they eschewed tribalism and never politicized religion.”
However, not all men of God disagree totally with Gadaffhi. The immediate past National Secretary of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Bishop Joseph Ojo is one. Ojo, a close associate of the late faith movement icon, Archbishop Benson Idahosa told the Champion newspaper: “I agree with him. Nigeria should be split into six different nations. Gadaffhi said the country should be divided into two because of his religious sentiments but the reality is that this nation should split into six different nations...Any church leader who is saying that the country should not split is speaking through his nose; such a person is saying that because of fear of arrest. The Amalgamation has not helped us at all. In fact it has not helped anybody”.
There are several others, but easily the most significant is the about-face by Archbishop Akinola who at a media meet to marking the end of his tenure as Head of the Anglican Church declared: “He said, initially I dismissed him, thinking he was only being true-to-type, because he is the kind of person who could say such thing. After a week of pondering over the whole thing, I said to myself, may be the man should not just be dismissed. Perhaps what he has said is divine in the sense that it would serve as a wake up call to Nigerian stakeholders to find ways of finding lasting solutions to the issues at stake”.
Akinola said what Gadaffhi meant was that the time has come for Nigeria to sit and discuss her continued existence as one country under one God wondering, “where are the murderers and arsonists that caused mayhem in all the crises we have been having in this country. We need to come together and discuss the terms of our staying together if we want to be honest with ourselves…I support one Nigeria, but we have to discuss our continued existence as a nation. If Nigeria should burn, nobody will be spared. The time is ripe and due for discussion to settle Nigeria’s unity, that is what Gadaffhi’s statement portends. If Hausa-Fulani can do their business in the South unmolested, Kola and Ugochukwu should be able to do their businesses in Kaduna or Jos unmolested, and if molested, then government and the police have a duty to fish out the perpetrators and deal with them decisively.”
My take is this: like Akinola, I believe there’s a message in this “madness”. Let’s stop deceiving ourselves about the sanctity of the Nigerian union. If tyranny and injustice begot secession, even in Israel, it can anywhere (see 2Chronicles 10). Is any one listening?
No comments:
Post a Comment