THE ROAD TO LEBANON

By

Mike Ikhariale

It remains a dominant part of the unfortunate history of the unfortunate peoples of the unfortunate Nigerian Federation that a leadership that had failed the people in the resolution of their basic materials problems and has also dashed their hope of a progressive and united society has, in desperation, resorted to the contrivance of religion as a veritable diversion from its glaring shortcomings. And to a reasonable extent, they seem to have succeeded in their diversionary machinations, especially as it concerns the use of religion as a political decoy. From all indications, Karl Marx was on target when he wrote that religion is the opium of the people. If anyone doubted him elsewhere, the case of Nigeria has amply validated his thesis beyond any rational controversy. We can even add that religion, in crude and unmeasured dosage, just like narcotics, kills and it is indeed killing many of our compatriots.

Lest we be misunderstood, it should be promptly clarified that our reference to "leadership" here is not referring solely to the present dispensation, but stretches far back to the indolent years of those illegitimate military governments when gross incompetence and all-pervading institutional aberrations were elevated into a national credo. In fact, whatever failure we bemoan in national leadership today is traceable directly to that same era which aptly represents the biblical deficit years, which the evil locust was said to, have destroyed. It is now clear that the military did not only misrule the country; it equally misled the people into a religion quagmire by recklessly crossing the dividing fence between State and religion such as the IBB stealth romance with the OIC which was decidedly prohibited by the pre-existing national constitutional order from which an easy retreat regrettably now appears not to be in sight.

Our first republican leaders comprising of the late Sarduna of Sokoto, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Obafemi Awolowo walked the tight religious rope of Nigeria very successfully. And it is to their eternal credit that religion did not play very decisive roles in the affairs of the nation then. But it was the soldiers, intellectually stunted and trapped in a social stupor as well as been totally devoid of a viable political base and vision, that desperately whipped up religious and sectarian differences amongst the peoples of Nigeria just to sustain their illegal and kleptocratic stranglehold on the society through the tactics of divide and rule and, as we can see today, they only succeeded in putting the nation on the short but uncharted highway to Lebanon with death, maiming and mutual intolerance in is wake.

The mayhem that we have suffered over the years and the one which was recently inflicted on the city of Kaduna by men pretending to be religious warriors crusading over the equally inexplicable editorial disaster of the Thisday newspaper was politically motivated by people who have no moral claim to the very religion they so hypocritically profess. These people are common criminals who are hiding under religion to cause confusion in the society and, in the process, enrich themselves in the currency of their design. No rational purpose is served trying to put the unholy development in the aftermath of the ill-fated beauty contest in Nigeria to anything truly religious or principally to any publication, blasphemous or not. I am personally not a fan of frivolities like beauty contests, perhaps I am ascetic, but my only lawful redress against such things is to avoid them. I have a choice to be there or stay at home. The same goes for other people of serious religious persuasions even though my reasons for boycotting them are more material and, indeed some aspects of bio-social humanism, than anything religious as nothing under the sun would have taken me to a beauty pageant. But that does not give me the right to attack or kill those who want to enjoy the show because that itself would have been sinful before God and clearly criminal before the constitution and the laws of Nigeria. Nigeria is big enough to accommodate the morally righteous, the sanctimonious as well as the materially hedonistic. And if one says no to the others, there would be undue friction as such would create a sense of jural inequality amongst the citizens under the Rule of Law.

There is nothing religious when hate-filled people vengefully go out and kill and maim their fellow human beings; burn their buildings and vandalize their businesses. It is evil, barbaric and cowardly, through and through. The God that I serve does not approve of murder or vandalism in His holy name. Instead, He is the God of love, forgiveness and compassion. It is therefore only cruel human beings that have decided on their own evil-motivated volition, to want to abuse His name even as they dwell in mortal wickedness. It is only Satan himself who is pretending to be acting for God that would have set people on the path of destruction and hatred, the type that we have seen of late. I refuse to accept the lingering inference that Islam is necessarily a violent religion because all the Moslems I have ever encountered as relatives, classmates, colleagues and friends are the most humane, most humble and most trustworthy individuals you can ever meet and, as a Christian, I never cease to note and, in need, admire their numerous sterling qualities. And I have no doubt in my mind that these true believers must have been deeply embarrassed by the manifest ungodliness in the actions of those hired rioters acting in the name of Islam.

Nigeria is necessarily a nation of law and inter-sectarian in composition and it is therefore important that we guide jealously the concept of religious freedom and tolerance. I still continue to cherish the ram meat that our Moslems friends used to supply us aplenty during Sallah and, of course, their annual friendly company during Christmas celebrations. It is difficult to imagine that people who now kill themselves over religion differences can ever relive such healthy inter-religious relationships. That is why it is very important that we all stand up to condemn the actions of those vandals that visited Kaduna and other places recently in the name of religion and those political thugs masquerading as religious people should be isolated and firmly dealt with as enemies of the commonwealth and of God. If the Almighty Allah, as the holy books declare, is merciful, then, those politicians who used their elitist GSM text phones to spread the war order to the marauding wretched hoodlums of Kaduna and elsewhere are anything but merciful, especially in the face of the apology profusely rendered by the Thisday people and the well-known potential for such ecumenical instigation to develop into something disastrous in view of the subsisting volatile nature of present day Nigeria.

What shall it profit religious warmongers if they destroy Nigeria and still find themselves in hell? Nothing. A more immediate question is - does any one really think that any particular religion can impose itself on the polyglot that is Nigeria and succeed? What is the purpose of religion if it cannot foster peace and goodwill among men? It has become obvious that people are hiding under religion to express their political preferences and push other sinister agendas in the country. More importantly, it should have occurred to our evil messengers that simple common sense have it that those who repeat and publish ‘blasphemous’ materials are as guilty as those who originally author them. Broadcasting it on the airwaves and on the web was simply inciting. It did not indicate any piety on their parts but on the contrary, very suggestive of an outlandish politicking.

Sect leaders, Christians and Moslems alike, own it as a moral obligation to educate their evidently disposable ignorant followers that God is not pleased by evil and no human being has the power or the necessity to fight for Him.

We can bet that no children of those who used their cellphones to circulate the careless Thisday statement or politicized it during worship took part in the rampage or got near the scene, much less got injured, or killed in the process. In all probability, they were schooling in the safe and secular environments of Europe and America. But they mischievously sensitized so many unsuspecting commoners, predictably people who could not themselves read the offensive article, being stark illiterates, to their untimely graves and, worst still, put the blood of those they have unfairly killed on their heads.

Anyone of good conscience would know that what took place was totally unwarranted. It is not correct to speak emphatically of ‘provocation’ in this case because self-discipline, as a virtue, is a cardinal prescription of every religion and anyone who can not restrain himself in the face of extreme provocation cannot be a true believer. It is therefore mere political talks for those who have been harping on the provocation theory for justification of the attacks. From all indications, those involved had had ample time to plan and execute their bloodletting; the Thisday publication only unwittingly provided the offensive matchstick for the waiting inferno. Some have also blamed the season in which the event was scheduled as being insensitive and inauspicious. Well, that may have been true but the reality is that no time would have been acceptable to those already set against it, anyway. Personally, there is no time I would have accepted such hedonistic events but that, again, does not give me the license to kill and maim those who are involved. It remains their right as their conscience dictate to them.

It is therefore a matter of serious concern that some overzealous politicians are talking carelessly of a fatwa against citizen Isioma Daniel in the manner of Salman Rushdie. I have always thought that fatwa is a very serious religious sanction that must judiciously proceed from appropriate authorities. But that it has now become an administrative directive to be casually doled our by worldly and stinkingly corrupt secular state officials like the fanatics of Zamfara state government had insinuated, apart from its manifest ultra vires, tells a lot about the political origins of the Kaduna mayhem. It is reassuring that knowledgeable Islamic authorities within and outside the country and the Federal Government (uncharacteristically this time) came out quite timeously to allay the fear of the society that nothing of such would be tolerated in the country because it is not only illegal, it is also indicative of a scepter of anarchy presented in the name of religion.

Those who peddle extreme and belligerent views of Islam should go to Iran and see the enormous social movement now in place that is poised to undo the great sectarian and political ‘havoc’ that the Islamic revolution of only a few years ago wroth on the society. Having successfully driven the wayward secular regime of the Shah out of power, the Mullahs are finding out by the day that Iranians could not be fed with the scriptures alone and the restive youths, who do not know of the fiery Ayatollah Khomeini, are telling them in the incessant street protests, to hand off state affairs and face the faith. That should be a lesson to our politicians currently hiding under religion to cover up their failings in office because sooner or later the people will see the difference between the will of Allah and the work of man in the affairs of the state and they would be justified if they ask for the heads of their leaders because over time, they have been told that violence is the only tool of the faithful.

I am unable to solely blame the government for this particular incident as have been widely orchestrated by those angling for tactical advantages in the show of shame. I am mindful of the fact that the government is equally constitutionally obligated to the protection of those who are religious and those who are irreligious. So, allowing the beauty contest to hold in the country was therefore no offense on its part. It is was just that some people are already beginning to think and conduct themselves outside of the normative parameters of the state of Nigeria, forgetting the wise words of ex-President Shehu Shagari in 1983 that "those who sow in the wind shall reap the whirlwind" because, if this Sharia thing is not handled wisely, I do not see any side that would emerge victorious. Rather, we shall be trapped in a vicious and wasteful circle in which evil actions would be followed by equally evil reactions. If God wanted us to suffer such a fate, He would not have given us brains with which to rationally work out our actions.

The real threat ahead is that Nigeria is made poorer by the vandalism committed in the name of religion. If it was poverty that drove us into such extreme enterprise, we have only unwittingly accelerated our descent into deeper poverty, as we cannot again dwell in a house we have pyromaniacally torched. When the ashes are settled, it would be clear that neither God nor man would reward the evil deeds, which are clearly manifested in the recent acts of intolerance and calculated bloodletting.

Nov 2002