The not-very-inspiring quality of leadership that the nation has been saddled with from inception and the absence of creative solutions to our recrudescent problems can be traced to the fractured leadership selection program of our colonial heritage that works to ensure that the very best of leaders never get elected into office at the apex levels of governance. This fact added to the religious distrust generated by the divide-and-rule principle in the foundation of Nigeria meant that it was inevitable for the walls of separation between the major religions of Nigeria to emerge.
The building of that wall was facilitated by the northernization agenda that preceded our independence since its strategy was literarily based on the demonization of the South on the basis of religion. This exactly is what Taubman Goldie designed Nigeria to become and his hireling Frederick Lugard executed his instructions very well. This inherited colonial sentiment of division was so well sold to the leaders of northern Nigeria that any sensible person would wince with pain each time the colonial BBC interview with the Sarduana is replayed on the social media. More so, because his comments on the aggressive and over ambitious trait of a major southern ethnic group, the Igbo was very caustic. An Islamic wall of distrust was easily constructed since it had only a handful of denominations to deal with as anticipated by Lugard.
On the other side of the coin, however, the gate keepers of the Christian community were not having an easy ride because of the abundance of denominations professing Christianity. Unity seemed impossible until a common threat arose during the military years of rule and even then it took the prodding of a Muslim head of State to establish an umbrella body for both southern and northern Christians to speak in unison if not in unity. Considering the make-up of the umbrella body dubbed CAN – The Christian Association of Nigeria, the political class never found it too difficult to keep the Christian body on a leash and the gatekeepers of the Christian faith often looked wistfully over the fence to admire the seeming uniformity and loyalty of Muslims to their gatekeepers.
This was the situation until the existentialist threat of the global Islamist terrorism entered the narrative in the early nineteen nineties, and since then the degree of sophistication in the asymmetric warfare and hybrid threats of this global menace has continually triumphed over the best efforts of the Nigerian security architecture and its ultra-intelligent approach to collapse our nation from within by using its own untapped strength against us is sheer genius.
At the present moment Nigeria is like a rat that has been paralyzed by the hypnotic gaze of a hissing cobra that is ready to strike at any moment. Our saving grace is that the rat is too large to be swallowed in one bite and a premature strike could bring neighbours with big cudgels into the affray. As a result, we have a little window frame of time to reposition Nigeria if we want to survive the global threat but there are three major drawbacks.
First, the average Nigerian is overwhelmed by poverty and does not understand what we are up against and second the nation is distracted by the seasonal game of political charades not knowing that the global terror hydra is well represented in the local politics of Nigeria.
Finally, the engineering equation that promotes corruption and mediocrity into leadership position is still at play such that none of the options presents us with the exceptional leadership needed to assure victory. This perhaps the best time to remind the Nigerian Church polity that the CMS launched a special edition, Independence Bible on the 1st of October 1960 to stand as an Ebenezer to all generations of church leaders. The church leaders wanted us to remember that the Church made great & significant sacrifices in the laying of a foundation for modern Nigeria. Although he was kidnapped the Fulahs in 1821, the first African Bishop, Ajayi Crowther did not shy away from an open meeting with the notorious Fulah king, Zaki Sumo and his fiery half-brother Dasaba, when the need arose to negotiate the future of Nigeria.
In the same vein, it could be in the interest of our Christian polity to have direct and open meetings with the vice-presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) despite the uproar on the decision of Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu to go with the Muslim/Muslim presidential ticket. An open and public meeting would be an opportunity for us task Kashim Shettima on his reported terrorist ties and reputation for Islamist leanings.
Without disrespecting his person, our Christian representation should be able to draw out the truth of Kashim’s complicity or otherwise in the open where there can be no whispers of bribes and compromise. In the same vein we would love to respectfully take on Alhaji Abubakar Atiku on the significance of his visit to the grave of Usman Dan Fodio prior to his political declaration. Then again, his hasty withdrawal of an otherwise justifiable tweet condemning the barbaric killing of Deborah Samuel needs to be oxygenated. By now it should be clear that the Christian polity in Nigeria is totally uninterested in any Nigerian future that does not reflect full religious liberties and the high value of human worth that our faith projects. The special Independence Bible is still with us and we will not compromise on its tested standards.
Thompson, a Strategic Thought Consultant and Counter-Terrorism Expert, writes from Lagos.